DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY.*

Mr. Speaker, I am constrained to differ from some of the gentlemen of my own side of the house who have spoken on this subject. I think that injustice has been done our Democratic friends, and I rise mainly for the purpose of vindicating them. Surprise has been expressed by several members in the course of this debate, that negative votes should be cast on the pending proposition to ratify the constitutional abolition of slavery. Some of the more ardent have censured in advance those who shall record their votes against the disenthralment of the nation. They do not merit it. It is due to their consistency-due to the history of the Democratic organizations; due to its earnest hostility to the cause of freedom from the commencement of the war until now, that every member who represents it on this floor should vote against any proposition striking at the vitality of human slavery.

It might not be amiss to remind them that in the earlier days of the Republic, one who was somewhat eminent as a statesman and for whose teachings they profess the profoundest reverence, tells the country that viewing slavery and its probable struggles in the future for supremacy, he trembled when he remembered that God is just. He knew it well. He was a slave-master and foresaw the grasping, relentless efforts it would make to debauch our nationality and the ultimate, violent conflict, in obedience to the laws of eternal justice, to eradicate it from our escutcheon. From Jefferson, the great Democratic leader of other days, came the ordinance of 1787,

1865.

* Delivered in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, February 3,

restricting slavery within prescribed limits, or rather inhibiting it in the fair regions of the West. The first act of the Government restricting this evil, about which there was then no diversity of opinion, came from the Sage of Monticello, who is claimed to day, and ever has been, as the leading light of that.party.

But Jefferson was only mortal, and the fathers of the Republic have been called away from us. Slavery has gradually become more and more exacting. The teachings of the founders of the Government who, in a mistaken view of expediency, compromised with wrong to allow slavery to glide into a peaceful death, have long since been forgotten in the race for political power; and little by little, step by step, day by day and year by year, it has grown in power, and how it has wielded it, let the history of the Democratic party tell.

It

It did not in one year, or in one decade, develop its revolting aim and the appalling issue it was hastening. It came not as the task-master, to demand obedience. came armed with the blandishments, the honors, the spoils of power, and it knew well whence to bear its court. It turned to the Democratic party, fastened upon it with its fatal friendship, and tempted and commanded it until it has blackened our history with a terrible catalogue of national woes, and has at last crimsoned our fair land deep with our richest blood.

It came first to arrest the constitutional right of petition. A free people, jealous of their rights, had petitioned the lawmakers to preserve the integrity of the free spirit of our Government, and it was a thrust at slavery. It had just then entered on its great struggle to nationalize itself at the cost of our nationality, and it would not withstand the searching scrutiny of faithful men. It was about to war upon the very foundation stone of the Republic—upon the great principles of freedom declared by our fathers, and it could triumph only by sealing the lips of its opponents.

It came to subvert the very genius of our institutions, and it came, not in hostile array; not with banners unfurled, declaring its deadly mission, but it came into the counsels of the Democracy with the syren song of peace, and bade them give tranquility to the nation by denying the right of petition. It did not appeal in vain. It did not mistake its ally, its friend, its willing, obedient slave. It had honors for the ambitious, spoils for the venal, flattery for the weak, and it was crowned master in the deliberations of that organization. In obedience to the teaching of slavery, which, through the Democratic leaders, stained our history with the denial of the right of petition, the remnant of that organization will to-day cast their votes against its abolition. In this are they not consistent?

Successful in one staggering blow at the dearest rights of a free people, slavery was not long content. Crime cannot maintain itself save by persistent efforts and successive triumphs. It had stricken down the right of petition, but it was still assailed by all the moral power of a great and free people, with their free press, free schools and educated and requited labor. It, therefore, came with new duties for its faithful ally. Free speech must be abridged; free newspapers must be circumscribed. It could not stand the searching light of truth; the fatal thrusts which the free discussion of a Christian people must aim at its power and permanency. It demanded that the mails be subject to its inspection-that they be rifled of all that taught the principle of freedom, and it was done. Journals, documents, books not worshiping at the shrine of slavery, were taken from the mails by authority of law, and committed to the flames, lest some poor slave might learn that the God of the oppressed ever lived to hear the supplications of the lowly and vindicate justice in His own good time. To the Democracy it appealed, and won its blotted triumph by which, in

one-half of the territory of the Republic, freedom of speech was made a stranger and freedom a fugitive.

But it was still not content; it was still not supreme. It must cope with an enlightened sentiment, with industrial progress, with the prosperity of educated labor contrasted with the withering desolation that followed its fatal tread, and unless it could invoke the sacred shield of the Constitution to protect and extend it, its triumph would be fruitless. It had convulsed the nation in its parting with free territory north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, when Missouri was admitted, and it must regain it or it could not arrest the predominance of the North. wanted the virgin Territories, not to make them bloom, but to arrest the tide of free industry and thus devote them to desolation. It struggled with its, at times, faltering Democratic allies in every possible way to compass its nationality; but it was a fearful task. The Democratic party was willing, but there were times, despite the cries of peace, that the outraged sentiment of the people hurled them from power and vindicated the cause of humanity and freedom. But it was tireless in its energies, exhaustless in its resources and it was not discouraged by defeat, nor did it despair at the occasional feeble perfidy of its main source of power. When its voice rang out along the Democratic lines with its dazzling promises of power, that organization would rally for another struggle, and follow its master with a devotion worthy of the noblest of

causes.

It could not live unless nationalized. It must be supreme. It must have the preponderance of power. It must have the Executive, and the Senate must be the unswerving citadel of its power. It must have new States to keep up the equilibrium, and it made war upon a sister Republic solely to bring fresh fields wherein it could glut its insatiate appetite. It demanded Texas, and Democracy delivered the prize. It demanded that the

new offering should be fruitful of States as its interest and supremacy in the Senate might demand, and Democracy denominated in the bond that it should be divided and subdivided until it should equal the great Middle States in the first legislative tribunal of the nation.

But it was still not supreme. The task assigned the Democratic party was not performed. It must have war, and Democracy fulfilled its demand. And once at war, it must have indemnity, and its bidding was obeyed. New territory sufficient to make half a score of States was wrested from Mexico. Still it was not content. It could not compete with the energy and progress of freedom in the territories, and its triumph threatened to turn to ashes. in its hands. It appealed to the Democracy. The law of the civilized world must be reversed. Slavery must be made the rule; freedom the exception. Slavery must be declared supreme in the Territories, or it must perish in the struggle. It turned to the West, soon to be peopled and potential in the Republic, and it must grasp them in its fatal embrace or surrender the conflict. It must abrogate the common law of every Christian government and confront the law of Him who created all things free. From His hand came no man another's slave. The Territories of the far West, blooming and fragrant as they came from the Creator, were by Him dedicated to freedom, and by the accepted law of Nations so regarded for centuries. But slavery demanded that by the arbitrary organic law of man, its right should be recognized to make a withered waste wherever it should choose to tread, and it was done. To resist it was fanaticism, treason, disunion; to sustain and extend it was declared the only path to concord and national unity. Its marshaled forces, under the flag of Democracy, did their work well. It appealed to the fears of the timid, to the cupidity of the corrupt, and it struck the deadliest blow to the very vitals of the Republic.