American Politics (non-partisan) from the Beginning to Date

every hazard, the object of their hatred. | advocate for the cause of Protection, to Sir, I am resolved only to look upon slav-open the discussion of this question. I do ery outside of Ohio, just as the founders this with less diffidence than I should feel of the constitution and Union regarded it. in meeting able opponents and practiced It is no concern of mine; none, none: nor disputants on almost any other topic, beof yours, Abolitionist. Neither of us cause I am strongly confident that you, will attain heaven, by denunciations of my hearers, will regard this as a subject slavery: nor shall we, I trow, be cast into demanding logic rather than rhetoric, the hell for the sin of others who may hold exhibition and proper treatment of homely slaves. I have not so learned the moral truths, rather than the indulgence of flights government of the universe: nor do I pre-of fancy. As sensible as you can be of my sumptuously and impiously aspire to the deficiencies as a debater, I have chosen to attributes of Godhead; and seek to bear put my views on paper, in order that I upon my poor body the iniquities of the may present them in as concise a manner world. as possible, and not consume my hour be"I know well indeed, Mr. President, fore commencing my argument. You have that in the evil day which has befallen us, nothing of oratory to lose by this course; I all this and he who utters it, shall be de- will hope that something may be gained nounced as 'pro-slavery;' and already to my cause in clearness and force. And from ribald throats, there comes up the here let me say that, while the hours I slavering, drivelling, idiot epithet of have been enabled to give to preparation 'dough-face.' Again, be it so. These, for this debate have been few indeed, I feel Abolitionist, are your only weapons of the less regret in that my life has been in warfare: and I hurl them back defiantly some measure a preparation. If there be into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, be- any subject to which I have devoted time, cause I speak in and to and for the North. and thought, and patient study, in a spirit It is time that the truth should be known, of anxious desire to learn and follow the and heard, in this the age of trimming truth, it is this very question of Protection; and subterfuge. I speak this day not as a if I have totally misapprehended its northern man, nor a southern man; but, character and bearings, then am I ignorGod, be thanked, still as a United States ant, hopelessly ignorant indeed. And, man, with United States principles;—and while I may not hope to set before you, in though the worst happen which can hap- the brief space allotted me, all that is pen-though all be lost, if that shall be essential to a full understanding of a quesour fate; and I walk through the valley of tion which spans the whole arch of Politithe shadow of political death, I will live cal Economy,-on which able men have by them and die by them. If to love my written volumes without at all exhausting country; to cherish the Union; to revere it-I do entertain a sanguine hope that I the Constitution: if to abhor the madness shall be able to set before you consideraand hate the treason which would lift up tions conclusive to the candid and una sacrilegious hand against either; if to biassed mind of the policy and necessity of read that in the past, to behold it in the Protection. Let us not waste our time present, to foresee it in the future of this on non-essentials. That unwise and unland, which is of more value to us and the just measures have been adopted under world for ages to come, than all the multi-the pretence of Protection, I stand not here plied millions who have inhabited Africa to deny; that laws intended to be Protecfrom the creation to this day :-if this it is to be pro-slavery, then, in every nerve, fibre, vein, bone, tendon, joint and ligament, from the topmost hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all over and altogether a PRO-SLAVERY MAN."

tive have sometimes been injurious in their tendency, I need not dispute. The logic which would thence infer the futility or the danger of Protective Legislation would just as easily prove all laws and all policy mischievous and destructive. Political Economy is one of the latest born of the Sciences; the very fact that we meet here this evening to discuss a question so

Speech of Horace Greeley on the Grounds fundamental as this proves it to be yet in

its comparative infancy. The sole favor I shall ask of my opponents, therefore, is that they will not waste their efforts and your time in attacking positions that we do not maintain, and hewing down straw giants of their own manufacture, but meet directly the arguments which I shall advance, and which, for the sake of simplicity and clearness, I will proceed to put before you in the form of Propositions and their Illustrations, as follows:

claration of Independence, resolved that |ity-finds no parallel in the world's no more slaves ought to be imported into history,

the thirteen colonies. Jefferson, in his "Patriotic sentiments, sir, such as draught of the Declaration, had de- marked the era of '89, continued to guide nounced the King of England alike for the statesmen and people of the country encouraging the slave trade, and for fo- for more than thirty years, full of prosmenting servile insurrection in the prov-perity; till in a dead political calm, coninces. Ten years later, he boldly attacked sequent upon temporary extinguishment slavery in his "Notes on Virginia;" and of the ancient party lines and issues, the in the Congress of the Confederation, MISSOURI QUESTION resounded through prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the land with the hollow moan of the with its solemn compacts and compromises earthquake, shook the pillars of the reupon the subject of slavery, proposed to ex-public even to their deep foundations. clude it from the territory northwest the "Within these thirty years, gentlemen, river Ohio. Colonel Mason of Virginia slavery as a system, had been abolished by vehemently condemned it, in the conven- law or disuse, quietly and without agitation of 1787. Nevertheless it had already tion, in every state north of Mason and become manifest that slavery must soon Dixon's line-in many of them, lingering, die away in the North, but in the South indeed, in individual cases, so late as the continue and harden into perhaps a per- census of 184C. But except in half a manent, uneradicable system. Hostile in-score of instances, the question had rot terests and jealousies sprang up, therefore, been obtruded upon Congress. The Fugiin bitterness even in the convention. But tive Slave Act of 1793 had been passed the blood of the patriot brothers of Caro- without opposition and without a division, lina and Massachusetts smoked yet upon in the Senate; and by a vote of forty-eight the battle fields of the revolution. The to seven, in the House. The slave trade recollection of their kindred language, had been declared piracy punishable with and common dangers and sufferings, death. Respectful petitions from the burned still fresh in their hearts. Patriot- Quakers of Pennsylvania, and others, ism proved more powerful than jealousy, upon the slavery question, were referred and good sense stronger than fanaticism. to a committee, and a report made thereThere were no Sewards, no Hales, no on, which laid the matter at rest. Other Sumners, no Greeleys, no Parkers, no petitions afterwards were quietly rejected, Chase, in that convention. There was a and, in one instance, returned to the petiWilson; but he rejoiced not in the name tioner. Louisiana and Florida, both of Henry; and he was a Scotchman. slave-holding countries, had without agiThere was a clergyman-no, not in the tation been added to our territory. Kenconvention of '87, but in the Congress of tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, '76; but it was the devout, the learned, the and Alabama, slave states each one of pious, the patriotic Witherspoon; of for- them, had been admitted into the Union eign birth also, a native of Scotland, too. without a murmur. No Missouri Restric The men of that day and generation, sir tion, no Wilmot Proviso had as yet reared were content to leave the question of its discordant front to terrify and confound. slavery just where it belonged. It did not NON-INTERVENTION was then both the occur to them, that each one among them practice and the doctrine of the statesmen was accountable for 'the sin of slave-hold- and people of that period: though, as ing' in his fellow; and that to ease his yet, no hollow platform enunciated it as tender conscience of the burden, all the an article of faith, from which, neverthefruits of revolutionary privation and less, obedience might be withheld, and the blood and treasure; all the recollections of platform 'spit upon,' provided the tender the past; all the hopes of the future: conscience of the recusant did not forbid nay the Union, and with it, domestic tran-him to support the candidate and help to quillity and national independence, ought secure the 'spoils.'

to be offered up as a sacrifice. They were "I know, sir, that it is easy, very easy, content to deal with political questions; to denounce all this as a defence of slavand to leave cases of conscience to the ery itself. Be it so: be it so. But I have church and the schools, or to the indi- not discussed the institution in any revidual man. And accordingly to this spect; moral, religious, or political. Hear Union and Constitution, based upon these me. I express no opinion in regard to it: compromises-execrated now as cove- and as a citizen of the north, I have ever nants with death and leagues with hell'- refused, and will steadily refuse, to discuss every state acceded: and upon these the system in any of these particulars. It foundations, thus broad and deep, and is precisely this continued and persistent stable, a political superstructure has, as if discussion and denunciation in the North, by magic, arisen, which in symmetry and which has brought upon us this present proportion-and, if we would but be most perilous crisis: since to teach men to true to our trust, in strength and durabil-hate, is to prepare them to destroy, at

"I know well indeed, Mr. President, that in the evil day which has befallen us, all this and he who utters it, shall be denounced as 'pro-slavery;' and already from ribald throats, there comes up the slavering, drivelling, idiot epithet of 'dough-face.' Again, be it so. These, Abolitionist, are your only weapons of warfare and I hurl them back defiantly into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, because I speak in and to and for the North. It is time that the truth should be known, and heard, in this the age of trimming and subterfuge. I speak this day not as a northern man, nor a southern man; but, God, be thanked, still as a United States man, with United States principles; and though the worst happen which can happen-though all be lost, if that shall be our fate; and I walk through the valley of the shadow of political death, I will live by them and die by them. If to love my country; to cherish the Union; to revere the Constitution: if to abhor the madness and hate the treason which would lift up a sacrilegious hand against either; if to read that in the past, to behold it in the present, to foresee it in the future of this land, which is of more value to us and the world for ages to come, than all the multiplied millions who have inhabited Africa from the creation to this day :-if this it is to be pro-slavery, then, in every nerve, fibre, vein, bone, tendon, joint and ligament, from the topmost hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all over and altogether a PRO-SLAVERY MAN."

That unwise and unjust measures have been adopted under the pretence of Protection, I stand not here to deny; that laws intended to be Protective have sometimes been injurious in their tendency, I need not dispute. The logic which would thence infer the futility or the danger of Protective Legislation would just as easily prove all laws and all policy mischievous and destructive. Political Economy is one of the latest born of the Sciences; the very fact that we meet here this evening to discuss a question so

Speech of Horace Greeley on the Grounds fundamental as this proves it to be yet in

of Protection.*

its comparative infancy. The sole favor I that they will not waste their efforts and shall ask of my opponents, therefore, is your time in attacking positions that we do not maintain, and hewing down straw giants of their own manufacture, but meet directly the arguments which I shall advance, and which, for the sake of simplicity and clearness, I will proceed to put before you in the form of Propositions and their Illustrations, as follows:

claration of Independence, resolved that |ity-finds no parallel in the world's no more slaves ought to be imported into history,

the thirteen colonies. Jefferson, in his "Patriotic sentiments, sir, such as draught of the Declaration, had de- marked the era of '89, continued to guide nounced the King of England alike for the statesmen and people of the country encouraging the slave trade, and for fo- for more than thirty years, full of prosmenting servile insurrection in the prov- perity; till in a dead political calm, coninces. Ten years later, he boldly attacked sequent upon temporary extinguishment slavery in his "Notes on Virginia;" and of the ancient party lines and issues, the in the Congress of the Confederation, MISSOURI QUESTION resounded through prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the land with the hollow moan of the with its solemn compacts and compromises earthquake, shook the pillars of the reupon the subject of slavery, proposed to ex-public even to their deep foundations. clude it from the territory northwest the "Within these thirty years, gentlemen, river Ohio. Colonel Mason of Virginia slavery as a system, had been abolished by vehemently condemned it, in the conven- law or disuse, quietly and without agitation of 1787. Nevertheless it had already tion, in every state north of Mason and become manifest that slavery must soon Dixon's line-in many of them, lingering, die away in the North, but in the South indeed, in individual cases, so late as the continue and harden into perhaps a per- census of 1840. But except in half a manent, uneradicable system. Hostile in-score of instances, the question had not terests and jealousies sprang up, therefore, been obtruded upon Congress. The Fugiin bitterness even in the convention. But tive Slave Act of 1793 had been passed the blood of the patriot brothers of Caro- without opposition and without a division, lina and Massachusetts smoked yet upon in the Senate; and by a vote of forty-eight the battle fields of the revolution. The to seven, in the House. The slave trade recollection of their kindred language, had been declared piracy punishable with and common dangers and sufferings, death. Respectful petitions from the burned still fresh in their hearts. Patriot- Quakers of Pennsylvania, and others, ism proved more powerful than jealousy, upon the slavery question, were referred and good sense stronger than fanaticism. to a committee, and a report made thereThere were no Sewards, no Hales, no on, which laid the matter at rest. Other Sumners, no Greeleys, no Parkers, no petitions afterwards were quietly rejected, Chase, in that convention. There was a and, in one instance, returned to the petiWilson; but he rejoiced not in the name tioner. Louisiana and Florida, both of Henry; and he was a Scotchman. slave-holding countries, had without_agiThere was a clergyman-no, not in the tation been added to our territory. Kenconvention of '87, but in the Congress of tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, '76; but it was the devout, the learned, the and Alabama, slave states each one of pious, the patriotic Witherspoon; of for- them, had been admitted into the Union eign birth also, a native of Scotland, too. without a murmur. No Missouri RestricThe men of that day and generation, sir tion, no Wilmot Proviso had as yet reared were content to leave the question of its discordant front to terrify and confound. slavery just where it belonged. It did not NON-INTERVENTION was then both the occur to them, that each one among them was accountable for 'the sin of slave-holding' in his fellow; and that to ease his tender conscience of the burden, all the fruits of revolutionary privation and blood and treasure; all the recollections of the past; all the hopes of the future: nay the Union, and with it, domestic tranquillity and national independence, ought to be offered up as a sacrifice. They were "I know, sir, that it is easy, very easy, content to deal with political questions; to denounce all this as a defence of slavand to leave cases of conscience to the ery itself. Be it so: be it so. But I have church and the schools, or to the indi- not discussed the institution in any revidual man. And accordingly to this spect; moral, religious, or political. Hear Union and Constitution, based upon these me. I express no opinion in regard to it: compromises-execrated now as cove- and as a citizen of the north, I have ever nants with death and leagues with hell'- refused, and will steadily refuse, to discuss every state acceded: and upon these the system in any of these particulars. It foundations, thus broad and deep, and is precisely this continued and persistent stable, a political superstructure has, as if discussion and denunciation in the North, by magic, arisen, which in symmetry and which has brought upon us this present proportion-and, if we would but be most perilous crisis: since to teach men to true to our trust, in strength and durabil-hate, is to prepare them to destroy, at

practice and the doctrine of the statesmen and people of that period: though, as yet, no hollow platform enunciated it as an article of faith, from which, nevertheless, obedience might be withheld, and the platform 'spit upon,' provided the tender conscience of the recusant did not forbid him to support the candidate and help to secure the spoils.'

every hazard, the object of their hatred. [advocate for the cause of Protection, to Sir, I am resolved only to look upon slav-open the discussion of this question. I do ery outside of Ohio, just as the founders this with less diffidence than I should feel of the constitution and Union regarded it. in meeting able opponents and practiced It is no concern of mine; none, none: nor of yours, Abolitionist. Neither of us will attain heaven, by denunciations of slavery: nor shall we, I trow, be cast into hell for the sin of others who may hold slaves. I have not so learned the moral government of the universe: nor do I presumptuously and impiously aspire to the attributes of Godhead; and seek to bear upon my poor body the iniquities of the world.

disputants on almost any other topic, because I am strongly confident that you, my hearers, will regard this as a subject demanding logic rather than rhetoric, the exhibition and proper treatment of homely truths, rather than the indulgence of flights of fancy. As sensible as you can be of my deficiencies as a debater, I have chosen to put my views on paper, in order that I may present them in as concise a manner as possible, and not consume my hour be"I know well indeed, Mr. President, fore commencing my argument. You have that in the evil day which has befallen us, nothing of oratory to lose by this course; I all this and he who utters it, shall be de- will hope that something may be gained nounced as 'pro-slavery;' and already to my cause in clearness and force. And from ribald throats, there comes up the here let me say that, while the hours I slavering, drivelling, idiot epithet of have been enabled to give to preparation 'dough-face.' Again, be it so. These, for this debate have been few indeed, I feel Abolitionist, are your only weapons of the less regret in that my life has been in warfare and I hurl them back defiantly some measure a preparation. If there be into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, be- any subject to which I have devoted time, cause I speak in and to and for the North. and thought, and patient study, in a spirit It is time that the truth should be known, of anxious desire to learn and follow the and heard, in this the age of trimming truth, it is this very question of Protection; and subterfuge. I speak this day not as a if I have totally misapprehended its northern man, nor a southern man; but, character and bearings, then am I ignorGod, be thanked, still as a United States ant, hopelessly ignorant indeed. And, man, with United States principles ;-and while I may not hope to set before you, in though the worst happen which can hap- the brief space allotted me, all that is pen-though all be lost, if that shall be essential to a full understanding of a quesour fate; and I walk through the valley of tion which spans the whole arch of Politithe shadow of political death, I will live cal Economy,-on which able men have by them and die by them. If to love my written volumes without at all exhausting country; to cherish the Union; to revere it-I do entertain a sanguine hope that I the Constitution: if to abhor the madness shall be able to set before you consideraand hate the treason which would lift up tions conclusive to the candid and una sacrilegious hand against either; if to biassed mind of the policy and necessity of read that in the past, to behold it in the Protection. Let us not waste our time present, to foresee it in the future of this on non-essentials. That unwise and unland, which is of more value to us and the just measures have been adopted under world for ages to come, than all the multi-the pretence of Protection, I stand not here plied millions who have inhabited Africa to deny; that laws intended to be Protecfrom the creation to this day:-if this it tive have sometimes been injurious in is to be pro-slavery, then, in every nerve, fibre, vein, bone, tendon, joint and ligament, from the topmost hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all over and altogether a PRO-SLAVERY MAN."

their tendency, I need not dispute. The logic which would thence infer the futility or the danger of Protective Legislation would just as easily prove all laws and all policy mischievous and destructive. Political Economy is one of the latest born of the Sciences; the very fact that we meet here this evening to discuss a question so

Speech of Horace Greeley on the Grounds fundamental as this proves it to be yet in

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