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save the nation must reside in the northwest, for the simple reason that it is not the people who live on the sidewalks and who deal in merchandise on the Atlantic or the Pacific coasts, that exercise the power of government, of sovereignty, in the United States. The political power of the United States resides in the owners of the land of the United States. The owners of workshops and of the banks are in the east, and the owners of the gold mines are in the far west; but the owners of the land of the United States are to be found along the shores of the Mississippi river, from New Orleans to the source of the great river and the great lakes. On both sides of the noble flood are the people who hold in their hands the des tinies of the republic.

I have been asked by many of you what I think of Minnesota. I will not enlarge further than to say, that Minnesota must be either a great state or a mean one, just as her people shall have wisdom and virtue to decide. That some great states are to be built up in the Mississippi valley, I know. You will no longer hereafter hear of the "Old Dominion" state. Dominion has been passing away from Virginia long ago. Pennsylvania is no longer the "Keystone of the American Union, for the arch has been extended from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific ocean, and the center of the arch is moved westward also; a new keystone is to be inserted in that arch. New York will cease to be the "Empire State," and a new Empire State will grow up in a northern latitude, where the lands are rich, and where the people who cultivate them are all free and all equal; where the wealth of the continent is made, not where it is exchanged. That state which shall be truest to the great fundamental principle of the government, the principle of equality, that state which shall be most faithful, most vigorous in developing and perfecting society on this principle, will be at once the New Dominion State, the new Keystone State, the new Empire State. If there is any state in the northwest that has been kinder to me than the state of Minnesota, and if such a consideration could influence me, then I perhaps might have a sympathy with the emulation of some other state. I will only say that every man who has an honest heart and a clear head, can see that these proud distinctions are within the grasp of the people of Minnesota, and every generous heart will be willing to give her a fair chance to secure them.

THE NATIONAL IDEA; ITS PERILS AND TRIUMPHS.

CHICAGO, OCTOBER 3, 1860,

HAIL to the state of Illinois! whose iron roads form the spinal column of that system of internal continental trade which surpasses all the foreign commerce of the country, and has no parallel or imitation in any other country on the face of the globe.

Hail to Chicago! the heart which supplies life to this great system of railroads-Chicago, the last and most wonderful of all the marvelous creations of civilization in North America.

Hail to this council chamber of the great republican party! justly adapted, by its vastness and its simplicity, to its great purposes— the hall where the representatives of freemen framed that creed of republican faith which carries healing for the relief of a disordered nation. Woel woe! be to him who shall add or shall subtract one word from that simple, sublime, truthful, beneficent creed. '

1

Hail to the representatives of the republican party! chosen here by the republicans of the United States, and placed upon the plat form of that creed. Happy shall he be who shall give them his suffrage. If he be an old man, he shall show the virtue of wisdom acquired by experience. If he be a young man, he shall in all his coming years tell his fellow men with pride, "I, too, voted for Abraham Lincoln."

That republican creed is nevertheless no partisan creed. It is a national faith, because it is the embodiment of the one life sustaining, life-expanding idea of the American republic. What is the idea more or less than simply this: That civilization is to be maintained and carried on upon this continent by federal states, based upon the principles of free soil, free labor, free speech, equal rights, and universal suffrage?

This is no new idea. This idea had its first utterance, and the boldest and clearest of all the utterances it has ever received, in the

1 See Memoir, ante, page 76.

very few words that were spoken by this nation when it came before the world, took its place upon the stage of human action, asserted its independence in the fear of God, and in full confidence of the approval of mankind, and declared that henceforth it held those to be its enemies who should oppose it in war, and those to be its friends who should maintain with it relations of peace. That utterance was expressed in these simple words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident-that all men are created equal, and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This great national idea has been working out its fruits ever since. Its work is seen in the perfect acceptance of it by eighteen of the thirtyfour states of the Union-or seventeen of the thirty-three, if Kansas is to be considered out. It is asserting itself in the establishment of new states throughout the west, as it has revolutionized and is revolutionizing all of western and southern Europe. Why is this idea so effective? It is because it is the one chief living, burning, inex tinguishable thought of human nature itself, entertained by man in every age and in every clime.

This national idea works not unopposed. Every good and virtu ous and benevolent principle in nature has its antagonist, and this great national idea works in perpetual opposition--I may be allowed to say in irrepressible conflict-with an erroneous, a deceitful, a delusive idea. Do you ask what that delusive idea is? It is the idea that civilization ought and can be effected on this continent by this same form of federal states, based on the principles of slave labor—of African slave labor, of unequal rights and unequal representation, resulting in unequal suffrage.

Can it be that this great creed of ours needs exposition or defense? It seems to me so evidently just and true, that it requires no exposition and needs no defense. Certainly in foreign countries it needs none. In Scotland, or France, or Germany, or Russia, on the shores. of the Mediterranean, in Europe, or in Asia, or in Africa, you will never find one human being who denies the truth and the justice of this our national idea of the equality of men. It needs no exposition anywhere. It is one of those propositions that when addressed to thoughtful men needs no explanation or defense. And why not?

Here we can see for ourselves this mean and miserable stream of black African slavery stealing along, turbid and muddy, as it is drawn from its stagnant source in the slave states; we see that it is pesti

lential in the atmosphere it passes through; we can see how inadequate it is and unfit to irrigate a whole continent with the living waters of health and life; we can see how it is that everything within its sphere withers and droops; while on the other hand, we can also see free labor as it descends the mountain sides in torrents, is then gathered in rivulets, which, increasing always in volume and power, spread all over the land. We can well see, by the effects it has already produced, how it irrigates and must continue to irrigate this whole continent; how every good and virtuous thing lives and breathes by its support. We see the magical fertility which results from its presence, because it is around us and before us.

We sometimes hear an argument for a political proposition made in this form: One offers to "take a thing to be done by the job." Let us imagine for a moment that there could be one man bold enough, great enough, and wise enough to take "by the job" the work of establishing civilization over this broad continent of North America. He would of course want to do it in the shortest time, at the cheapest expense and in the best manner. Now, would such a contractor ever dream of importing African barbarians, or of taking their children or descendants in this country to build up and people great free states all over this land, from the Alleghany mountains to the Pacific ocean? Would he not, on the contrary, accept, as the. rightful, natural, healthful and best possible agency which he could select, the free labor of free men, the minds, the thoughts, the wills, the purposes, the ambitions of enlightened freemen, such as we claim ourselves to be? Would he not receive all who claimed to aid in such services as these, whether they were born on this soil or cradled in foreign lands?

I care not when reckless men say, in the heat of debate, or under the influence of interest, passion or prejudice, that it is a matter of indifference whether slavery shall pervade the whole land, or a part of the land, and freedom the residue; that freedom and slavery may take their chances; that they "don't care whether slavery is voted up or down." There is no man who has an enlightened conscience who is indifferent on the subject of human bondage. There is no man who is enlightened and honest, who would not abate part of his worldly wealth, if he could thereby convert this land from a land cursed in whole or in part with slavery, into a land of equal and impartial liberty. And I will tell you how I know this: I know it

because every man demands freedom for himself, and refuses to be a slave. No free man, who is a man, would consent to be a slave. Every slave who has any manhood in him desires to be free; every man who has an unperverted reason, laments, condemns and deplores the practice of commerce in man. The executioner is always odious, even though his task is necessary to the administration of justice. We turn with horror and disgust from him who wields the ax. So the slaveholder turns with disgust from the auctioneer who sells the man and woman whom he has reared and held in slavery, although he receives the profits of the sale into his own coffers.

I know this national idea of ours is just and right for another reason. It is that in the whole history of society human nature has never, never honored one man who reduced another man to bondage. The world is full of monuments in honor of men who have delivered . their fellow men from slavery.

Since this idea is self-evidently just, and is of itself pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated and full of good works, will you tell me why it is that it has not been fully accepted by the American people? Alas! that it should be so. Perhaps I can throw light on that by asking another question. Is not Christianity pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated and full of good works? and yet is not the church of Jesus Christ still a church militant? Alas! that it should be so. Christianty explains for herself how it is that she is rejected of men. She says it is because men love darkness. rather than light, because their deeds are evil. I shall not say this in regard to the subject of freedom. I know better. I know that my countrymen love light, not darkness. They are even in the state and disposition of the Roman governor, "almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian," and almost the American people are persuaded to be republicans. Why, then, are they not altogether persuaded? The answer cannot be given without some reflection. It involves an examination of our national conduct and life.

The reason why the country is only almost and not altogether persuaded to be republican, is because the national sense and judgment have been perverted. We inherited slavery; it is organized into our national life-into our forms of government. It exists among us, unsuspected in its evils, because we have become accustomed, by national habit, to endure and tolerate slavery. The effect of this habit arising from the presence of slavery, is to produce a

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