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eratic party has left only one yet to be consummated-too conservative for others. As if any party ever foresaw the abrogation of the law which forbids the African slave trade.

Now, I know very well that the Democratic party has, at every stage of these proceedings, disavowed the motive and the policy of fortifying and extending Slavery, and has excused them on entirely different and more plausi ble grounds. But the inconsistency and frivolity of these pleas prove still more conclusively the guilt I charge upon that party. It must, indeed, try to excuse such guilt before mankind, and even to the consciences of its own adherents. There is an instinctive abhor: ence of Slavery, and an inborn and inhering love of Freedom in the human heart, which renders palliation of such gross misconduct indispensable. It disfranchised the free African on the ground of a fear that, if left to enjoy the right of suffrage, he might seduce the free white citizen into amalgamation with his wronged and despised race. The Democratic party condemned and deposed John Quincy Adams, because he expended $12,000,000 a year, while it justifies his favored successor in spending $70,000,000, $80,000,000, and even $10,000,000, a year. It denies emancipation in the District of Columbia, even with compensation to masters and the consent of the people, on the ground of an implied constitutional inhibition, although the Constitution expressly confers upon Congress sovereign legislative power in that District, and although the Democratic party is tenacious of the principle of strict construction. It violated the express provisions of the Constitution in suppressing petition and debate on the subject of Slavery, through fear of disturbance of the public harmony, although it claims that the electors have a right to instruct their representatives, and even demand their resignation in cases of contumacy. It extended Slavery over Texas, and connived at the attempt to spread it across the Mexican territories, even to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, under a plea of enlarging the area of Freedom. It abrogated the Mexican slave law and the Missouri Compromise prohibition of Slavery in Kansas, not to open the new Territories to Slavery, but to try therein the new and fascinating theories of Non-intervention and Popular Sovereignty; and, finally, it overthrew both these new and elegant systems by the English Lecompton bill and the Dred Scott decision, on the ground that the Free States ought not to enter the Union without a population equal to the representative basis of one member of Congress, although Slave States might come in without inspection as to their numbers.

Will any member of the Democratic party now here claim that the authorities chosen by the suffrages of the party transcended their partisan platforms, and so misrepresented the party in the various transactions I have recited? Then I ask him to name one Democratic statesman or legislator, from Van Buren to Walker, who either timidly or cautiously like them, or boldly or defiantly like Douglas, ever refused to execute a behest of the slaveholders, and was not therefor, and for no other cause, immediately denounced, and deposed from his trust, and repudiated by the Democratic party for that contumacy.

I think, fellow-citizens, that I have shown you that it is high time for the friends of Freedom to rush to the rescue of the Constitution, and that their very first duty is to dismiss the Democratic party from the administration of the Government.

Why shall it not be done? All agree that it ought to be done. What, then, shall prevent its being done? Nothing but timidity or division of the opponents of the Democratic party.

Some of these opponents start one objection, and some another. Let us notice these objections briefly. One class say that they cannot trust the Republican party; that it has not avowed its hostility to Slavery boldly enough, or its affection for Freedom earnestly enough. I ask in reply, is there any other party which can be more safely trusted? Every one knows that it is the Republican party or none, that shall displace the Democratic party. But I answer further, that the character and fidelity of any party are determined, necessarily, not by its pledges, programmes, and platforms, but by the public exigencies, and the temper of the people when they call it into activity. Subserviency to Slavery is a law written not only on the forehead of the Democratic party, but also in its very soul-so resistance to Slavery, and devotion to Freedom, the popular elements now actively working for the Republican party among the people, must and will be the resources for its ever-renewing strength and constant invigoration.

Others cannot support the Republican party, because it it has not sufficiently exposed its platform, and determined what it will do, and what it will not do, when triumphant. It may prove too progressive for some, and

so clearly the course of future events as to plan a universal scheme for future action, adapted to all possible emergencies. Who would ever have joined even the Whig party of the Revolution, if it had been obliged to answer, in 1775, whether it would declare for Independence in 1776, and for this noble Federal Constitution of ours in 1787, and not a year earlier or later?

The people of the United States will be as wise next year, and the year afterward, and even ten years hence, as we are now. They will oblige the Republican party to act as the public welfare and the interests of justice and humanity shall require, through all the stages of its career, whether of trial or triumph.

Others will not venture an effort, because they fear that the Union would not endure the change. Will such objectors tell me how long a Constitution can bear a strain directly along the fibres of which it is com. posed? This is a Constitution of Freedom. It is being converted into a Constitution of Slavery. It is a republican Constitution. It is being made an aristocratic one. Others wish to wait until some collateral questions concerning temperance, or the exercise of the elective franchise are properly settled. Let me ask all such persons, whether time enough has not been wasted on these points already, without gaining any other than this single advantage, namely, the discovery that only one thing can be effectually done at one time, and that the one thing which must and will be done at any one time is just that thing which is most urgent, and will no longer admit of postponement or delay. Finally, we are told by faint-hearted men that they despond; the Democratic party, they say, is unconquerable, and the dominion of Slavery is consequently inevitable. I reply to them, that the complete and universal dominion of Slavery would be intolerable enough when it should have come after the last possible effort to escape should have been made. There would, in that case, be left to us the consoling reflection of fidelity to duty.

But I reply, further, that I know-few, I think, know better than I-the resources and energies of the Democratic party, which is identical with the Slave Power. I do ample prestige to its traditional popularity. I know further-few, I think, know better than I-the diffi culties and disadvantages of organizing a new political force like the Republican party, and the obstacles it must encounter in laboring without prestige and without patronage. But, notwithstanding all this, I know that the Democratic party must go down, and that the Republican party must rise into its place. The Democatic party derived its strength, originally, from its adoption of the principles of equal and exact justice to all men. So long as it practiced this principle faithfully, it was invulnerable. It became vulnerable when it renounced the principle, and since that time it has maintained itself, not by virtue of its own strength, or even of its traditional merits, but because there as yet had appeared in the political field no other party that had the conscience and the courage to take up, and avow, and practice the life-inspiring principles which the Democratic party had surrendered. At last, the Republican party has appeared. It avows now, as the Republican party of 1800 did, in one word, its faith_and its works, "Equal and exact justice to all men." Even when it first entered the field, only half organized, it struck a blow which only just failed to secure complete and triumphant victory. In this, its second campaign, it has already won advantages which render that triumph now both easy and certain.

The secret of its assured success lies in that very characteristic which, in the mouth of scoffers, constitutes its great and lasting imbecility and reproach. It lies in the fact that it is a party of one idea; but that idea is a noble one-an idea that fills and expands all generous souls; the idea of equality-the equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws, as they all are equal before the Divine tribunal and Divine laws.

I know, and you know, that a revolution has begun. I know, and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backward. Twenty Senators and a hundred Representatives proclaim boldly in Congress to-day sentiments and opinions and principles of Freedom which hardly so many men, even in this free State, dared to utter in the.r own homes twenty years ago. While the Government of the United States, under the conduct of the Democratic party, has been all that time surrendering one plain and castle after another to Slavery, the people of the United States have been no less steadily and perse veringly gathering together the forces with which to re. cover back again all the fields and all the castles which have been lost, and to confound and overthrow, by one decisive blow, the betrayers of the Constitution and Freedom forever.

"NEGRO SLAVERY NOT UNJUST."

A SPEECH BY CHARLES O'CONOR,

At the Union Meeting at the Academy of Music, New York City, Dec. 19, 1859.

As a

MR. MAYOR AND GENTLEMEN: I cannot express to you the delight which I experience in beholding in this great city so vast an assembly of my fellow citizens, convened for the purpose stated in your resolutions. I am delighted beyond measure to behold at this time so vast an assembly responding to the call of a body so respectable as the twenty thousand New Yorkers who have convened this meeting. If anything can give assurance to those who doubt, and confidence to those who may have had misgivings as to the permanency of our institutions, and the solidity of the support which the people of the North are prepared to give them, it is that in the queen city of the New World, in the capital of North America, there is assembled a meeting so large, so respectable, and so unanimous as this meeting has shown itself to be in receiving sentiments which, if observed, must protect our Union from destruction, and even from danger. (Ap--not seeking to exalt your imaginations by declamation plause.) Gentlemen, is it not a subject of astonishment that the idea of danger, and the still more dreadful idea of dissolution, should be heard from the lips of an American citizen, at this day, in reference to, or in connection with, the sacred name of this most sacred Union? (Applause.) Why gentlemen, what is our Union? What are its antecedents? What is its present condition? If we ward off the evils which threaten it, what its future hope for us and for the great family of mankind? Why gentlemen, it may well be said of this Union as a governinent, that as it is the last offspring, so is it Time's most glorious and beneficent production. Gentlemen, we are created by an Omniscient Being. We are created by a Being not only All-Seeing, but All-Powerful and All-Wise. And in the benignity and the farseeing wisdom of His power, He permitted the great family of mankind to live on, to advance, to improve, step by step, and yet permitted five thousand years and upward to elapse ere He laid the foundation of a truly free, a truly happy, and a truly independent empire. It was not, gentlemen, until that great length of time had elapsed, that the earth was deemed mature for laying the foundations of this mighty and prosperous State. It was then that He inspired the noble-minded and chivalrous Genoese to set forth upon the trackless ocean and discover the empire that we now enjoy. But a few years, comparatively, had elapsed when there was raised up in this blessed laud a set of men whose like had never before existed upon the face of this earth. Men unequalled in their perceptions of the true principles of justice, in their comprehensive benevolence, in their capacity to lay safely, justly, soundly, and with all the qualities which should insure permanency, the foundations of an empire. It was in 1776, and in this country, that there assembled the first, the very first, assembly of rational men who ever proclaimed, in clear and undeniable form, the immutable principles of liberty, and consecrated, to all time I trust, in the face of tyrants, and in opposition to their power, the rights of nations and the rights of men. (Applause.) These patriots, as soon as the storm of war had passed away, sat down and framed that instrument upon which our Union rests, the Constitution of the United States of America. (Applause.) And the question now before us is neither more nor less than this: whether that Constitution, consecrated by the blood shed in that glorious Revolution, consecrated by the signature of the most illustrious man who ever lived, George Washington (applause) whether that instrument, accepted by the wisest and by the best of that day, and accepted in convention, one by one, in each and every State of this Union-that instrument from which so many blessings have flown-whether that instrument was conceived in crime, is a chapter of abominations (cries of "No, no,") is a violation of justice, is a league between strong-handed but wicked-hearted white men to oppress, and impoverish, and plunder their fellow-creatures, contrary to rectitude, honor and justice. (Applause.) This is the question, neither more nor less. We are tol! from lpits, we are told from the political rostrum, ve are

told in the legislative assemblies of our Northern States, not merely by speakers, but by distinct resolutions of the whole body-we are told by gentlemen occupying seats in the Congress of the Union through the votes of Northern people-that the Constitution seeks to enshrine, to protect, to defend a monstrous crime against justice and humanity, and that it is our duty to defeat its provisions, to outwit them, if we cannot otherwise get rid of their effect, and to trample upon the rights which it has declared shall be protected and insured to our brethren of the South. (Applause.) That is now the doctrine advocated. And I ask whether that doctrine, necessarily involving the destruction of our Union, shall be permitted to prevail as it has hitherto prevailed? Gentlemen, I trust you will excuse me for deliberately coming up to and meeting this questionnot seeking to captivate your fancies by a trick of words or by any effort at eloquence-but meeting this question gravely, sedately, and soberly, and asking you what is to be our course in relation to it? Gentlemen, the Constitu tion guarantees to the people of the Southern States the protection of their slave property. In that respect it is a solemn compact between the North and the South. solemn compact are we at liberty to violate it? (Cries of No, no!") Are we at liberty to seek or take any mean, petty advantage of it? (Cries of "No, no!") Are we at liberty to con over its particular words, and to restrict and to limit its operation, so as to acquire, under such narrow construction, a pretence of right by hostile and adverse legislation? ("No, no!")-to interfere with the interests, wound the feelings, and trample on the political rights of our Southern fellow-citizens? ("No, no, no!") No, gentlemen. If it be a compact, and has anything sacred in it, we are bound to observe it in good faith, honestly and honorably, not merely to the letter, but fully to the spirit, and not in any mincing, half-way, unfair, or illiberal construction, seeking to satisfy the letter, to give as little as we can, and thereby to defeat the spirit. (Applause.) That may be the way that some men keep a contract about the sale of a house or of a chattel, but it is not the way honest men observe contracts, even in relation to the most trivial things. ("True," and applause.) What has been done, having a tendency to disturb harmony under this Constitution, and to break down and destroy the union now existing between these States? Why, gentlemen, at an early period the subject of Slavery, as a mere philosophical question, was discussed by many, and its justice or injustice made the subject of argument leading to various opinions. It mattered little how long this discussion should last, while it was confined within such limits. If it had only led to the formation of societies like the Shakers, who do not believe in matrimony; societies like the people of Utah, destined to a short career, who believe in too much of it (laughter); or societies of people like the strong-minded women of our country, who believe that women are much better qualified than men to perform the functions and offices usually performed by men (laughter)-and who probably would, if they had their way, simply change the order of proceed ings, and transfer the husband to the kitchen, and themselves to the field or the cabinet. (Laughter and applause.) So long, I say, as this sentimentality touching Slavery confined itself to the formation of parties and societies of this description, it certainly could do no great harm, and we might satisfy ourselves with the maxim that "Error can do little harm as long as truth is left free to combat it." But unfortunately gentlemen, this sentimentality has found its way out of the meeting-houses-from among pious people, assemblies of speculative philosophers, and societies formed to benefit the inhabitants of Barioboolagha-it has found its way into the heart of the selfish politician; it has been made the war-cry of party; it has been made the instrument whereby to elevate not merely to personal distinction and social rank, but to political power Throughout the non-slaveholding States of this Union, men have been thus elevated who advocate a course of con

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duct necessarily exasperating the South, and the natural | compact, to separate from us and to dissolve it? Why effect of whose teachings renders the Southern people insecure in their property and their lives, making it a matter of doubt each night whether they can safely retire to their slumbers without sentries and guards to protect them against incursions from the North. I say the effect has been to elevate, on the strength of this sentiment, such men to power. And what is the result-the condition of things at this day? Why, gentlemen, the occasion that calls us together is the occurrence of a raid upon the State of Virginia by a few misguided fanatics-followers of these ductrines, with arms in their hands, and bent upon rapine and murder. I called them followers, but they should be deemed leaders. They were the best, the bravest, and the most virtuous of all the abolition party. (Applause.) On the Lord's day, at the hour of still repose, they armed the bondman with pikes brought from the North, that he might slay his master, his master's wife, and his master's little children. And immediately succeeding to it at this very instant—what is the political question pending before Congress?

gentlemen, the greatness and glory of the American name will then be a thing of yesterday. The glorious Revolution of the thirteen States will be a Revolution not achieved by us, but by a nation that has ceased to exist. The name of Washington will be, to us at least at the North (cheers), but as the name of Julius Cæsar, or of some other great hero who has lived in times gone by, whose nation has perished and exists no more. Declaration of Independence, what will that be? Why, the declaration of a State that no longer has place among the nations. All these bright and glorious recollections of the past must cease to be our property, and become me e memorials of a by-gone race and people. A line must divide the North from the South. What will be the consequences? Will this mighty city-growing as it now is, with wealth pouring into it from every portion of this mighty empire-will it continue to flourish as it has done? (Cries of "No, no!") Will your marble palaces that line Broadway, and raise their proud tops toward the sky, continue to increase, until, as is now promised under the Union, it shall present the most glorious picture of wealth, prosperity, and happiness, that the world has ever seen? (Applause.) No! gentlemen, no! such things cannot be. I do not say that we will starve, that we will perish, as a people, if we separate from the South. I admit, that if the line be drawn between us, they will have their measure of prosperity, and we will have ours; but meagre, small in the extreme, compared with what is existing and promised under our Union, will be the prosperity of each.

Truly has it been said here to-night, that we were made for each other; separate us, and although you may not destroy us, you reduce each to so low a scale that well might humanity deplore the evil courses that brought about the result. True, gentlemen, we would have left, to boast of, our share of the glories of the Revolution. The Northern States sent forth to the conflict their bands of heroes, and shed their blood as freely as those of the South. But the dividing line would take away from us the grave of Washington. It is in his own beloved Virginia. (Applause and cheers.) It is in the State and near the spot where this treason that has been growing up in the North, so lately culminated in violence and bloodshed. We would lose the grave-we would lose all connection with the name of Washington. But our philanthropic and pious friends who fain would lead us to this result, would, of course, comfort us with the consoling reflection that we had the glorious memory of John Brown in its place. (Great laughter and cheers.) Are you, gentlemen, prepared to make the exchange? (Cries of "No, no.") Shall the tomb of Washington, that rises upon the bank of the Potomac, receiving its tribute from every nation of the earth-shall that become the property of a foreign State-a State hostile to us in its feelings, and we to it in ours? Shall we erect a monument among the arid hills at North Elba, and deem the privilege of making pilgrimages thither a recompense for the loss of every glorious recollection of the past, and for our severance from the name of Washington? He who is recognized as the Father of his Country? (Cries of "No, no," and cheers.) No, gentlemen, we are not prepared, I trust, for this sad exchange, this fatal severance. We are not prepared, I trust, either to part with our glorious past or to give up the advantages of our present happy condition. We are not prepared to relinquish our affection for the South, nor to involve our section in the losses, the deprivation of blessings and advantages necessarily resulting to each from dis union. Gentlemen, we never would have attained the wealth and prosperity as a nation which is now ours, but for our connection with these very much reviled and injured slaveholders of the Southern States. And, gentlemen, if dissolution is to take place, we must part with the trade of the South, and thereby surrender our participation in the wealth of the South. Nay, more-we are told from good authority that we must not only part with the slaveholding States, but that our younger sister with the golden crown-rich, teeming California, she who added the final requisite to our greatness as a nation-will not come with us. She will remain with the South.

A book substantially encouraging the same course of provocation toward the South which has been long pursued, is openly recommended to circulation by sixty-eight members of your Congress. (Cries of "Shame, on them,' applause, and hisses.)-Recommended to circulation by sixty-eight members of your Congress, all elected in Northern States (hisses and applause)-every one, I say, elected from non-slaveholding States. And with the assistance of their associates, some of whom hold their offices by your votes, there is great danger that they will elect to the highest office in that body, where he will sit as a representative of the whole North, a man who united in causing that book to be distributed through the South, carrying poison and death in its polluted leaves. ("Hang him!" and applause.) Is it not fair to say that this great and glorious Union is menaced when such a state of things is found to exist? when such an act is attempted? Is it reasonable to expect that our brethren of the South will calmly sit down ("No") and submit quietly to such an outrage? (Cries of "No, no.") Why, gentlemen, we greatly exceed them in numbers. The non-slaveholding States are by far the more populous; they are increasing daily in numbers and in population, and we may soon overwhelm the Southern vote. If we continue to fill the halls of legislation with abolitionists, and permit to occupy the executive chair men who declare themselves to be enlisted in a crusade against Slavery, and against the provisions of the Constitution which secure that species of property, what can we reasonably expect from the people of the South but that they will pronounce the Constitution, with all its glorious associations, with all its sacred memories-this Uuion, with its manifold present and promised blessings-an unendurable evil, threatening to crush and to destroy their most vital interests-to make their country a wilderness. Why should we expect them to submit to such a line of conduct on our part, and recognize us as brethren, or unite with us in perpetuating the Union? For my part I do not see anything unjust or unreasonable in the declaration often made by Southern members on this subject. They tell us: "If you will thus assail us with incendiary pamphlets, if you will thus create a spirit in your country which leads to violence and bloodshed among us, if you will assail the institution upon which the prosperity of our country depends, and will elevate to office over us men who are pledged to aid in such transactions, and to oppress us by hostile legislation, we cannot-much as we revere the Constitution, greatly as we estimate the blessings which would flow from its faithful enforcement-we cannot longer depend on your compliance with its injunctions, or adhere to the Union." For my part, gentlemen, if the North continues to conduct itself in the selection of representatives to the Congress of the United States as, from, perhaps a certain degree of negligence and inattention, it has heretofore conducted itself, the South is not to be censured if it withdraws from the Union. (Hisses and applause. A voice-"that's so." Three cheers for the Fugitive Slave Law.) We are not, gentlemen, to hold a meeting to say that "We love this Union; we delight in it; we are proud of it; it blesses us, and we enjoy it; but we shall All all its offices with men of our own choosing, and, our brethren of the South, you shall enjoy its glorious past; Gentlemen, if we allow this course of injustice toward you shall enjoy its mighty recollections; but it shall the South to continue, these are to be the consequencestrample your institutions in the dust." We have nc evil to us, evil also to them. Much of all that we are right to say it. We have no right to exact so much. most proud of; much of all that contributes to our pros and an opposite and entirely different course, fellow-perity and greatness as a nation, must pass away from citizens, must be ours-must be the course of the great us. North, if we would preserve this Union. (Applause, The question is-should we permit it to be continued, and cries of "Good.") and submit to all these evils? Is there any reason to justify such a course? There is a reason preached to us for permitting it. We are told that Slavery is unjust; we are told that it is a matter of conscience to put it down;

And, gentlemen, what is this glorious Union? What must we sacrifice if we exasperate our brethren of the South, and compel them, by injustice and breach of

We

and that whatever treaties or compacts, or laws, or con- trine. There are some principles well known, well under. stitutions, have been made to sanction and uphold it, it stood, universally recognized and universally acknow is still unholy, and that we are bound to trample upon ledged among men, that are not to be found written in contreaties, compacts, laws, and constitutions, and to stand stitutions or in laws. The people of the United States, at by what these men arrogantly tell us is the law of God the formation of our Government, were, as they still are, in and a fundamental principle of natural justice. Indeed, some sense, peculiarly and radically distinguishable from gentlemen, these two things are not distinguishable. The other nations. We were white men, of-what is commonly law of God and natural justice, as between man and man, called, by way of distinction-the Caucasian race. are one and the same. The wisest philosopher of ancient were a monogamous people; that is to say, we were not times-heathen philosophers-said, The rule of conduct Mohammedans, or followers of Joe Smith-with half a dobetween man and man is, to live honestly, to injure no zen wives apiece. (Laughter.) It was a fundamental man, and to render to every man his due. In words far principle of our civilization that no State could exist or be more direct and emphatic, in words of the most perfect tolerated in this Union, which should not, in that respect, somprehensiveness, the Saviour of the world gave us the resemble all the other States of the Union. Some other same rule in one short sentence-" Love thy neighbor as distinctive features might be stated which serve to mark thyself." (Applause.) Now, speaking between us, people us as a people distinct from others, and incapable of assoof the North and our brethren of the South, I ask you to ciating on terms of perfect political equality, or social act upon this maxim-the maxim of the heathen-the equality, as friends and fellow-citizens, with some kinds of command of the living God: "Render to every man his people that are to be found upon the face of the earth. due," "Love thy neighbor as thyself." (Applause.) Thus As a white nation, we made our Constitution and our laws, we should act and feel toward the South. Upon that vesting all political rights in that race. They, and they maxim which came from Him of Nazareth we should act alone, constituted, in every political sense, the American toward the South, but without putting upon it any new people. (Applause.) As to the negro, why, we allowed fangled, modern interpretation. We should neither say him to live under the shadow and protection of our laws. nor think that any Gospel minister of this day is wiser than We gave him, as we were bound to give him, protection God himself-than He who gave us the Gospel. These against wrong and outrage; but we denied to him political maxims should govern between us and our brethren of the rights, or the power to govern, We left him, for so long a South. But, gentlemen, the question is this: Do these period as the community in which he dwelt should so order, maxims justify the assertion of those who seek to invade in the condition of a bondsman. (Applause.) Now, genthe rights of the South, by proclaiming negro Slavery tlemen, to that condition the negro is assigned by nature. unjust? That is the point to which this great argument, (Cries of "Bravo," and "That's so," and applause.) Exinvolving the fate of our Union, must now come. Is perience shows that this race cannot prosper-that they negro Slavery unjust? If it be unjust, it violates the become extinct in any cold, or in any very temperate clime; first rule of human conduct, "Render to every man his but in the warm, the extremely warm regions, his race can due." If it be unjust, it violates the law of God, which be perpetuated, and with proper guardianship, may prossays, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," for that law requires per. He has ample strength, and is competent to labor, that we should perpetrate no injustice. Gentlemen, if it but nature denies to him either the intellect to govern or could be maintained that negro Slavery is unjust, is thus the willingness to work. (Applause.) Both were denied in conflict with the law of nature and the law of God, him. That same power which deprived him of the will to perhaps I might be prepared-perhaps we all ought to be labor, gave him, in our country, as a recompense, a master prepared to go with that distinguished man to whom to coerce that duty, and convert him into a useful and val allusion is frequently made, and say, there is a "higher uable servant. (Applause.) I maintain that it is not inlaw" which compels us to trample beneath our feet, as a justice to leave the negro in the condition in which nature wicked and unholy compact, the Constitution established placed him, and for which alone he is adapted. Fitted by our fathers, with all the blessings it secures to their only for a state of pupilage, our slave system gives him a children. But I insist-and that is the argument which we master to govern him and to supply his deficiencies: in must meet, and on which we must come to a conclusion this there is no injustice. Neither is it unjust in the master that shall govern our action in the future selection of re- to compel him to labor, and thereby afford to that master presentatives in the Congress of the United States-I a just compensation in return for the care and talent eminsist that negro Slavery is not unjust. (Long con- ployed in governing him. In this way alone is the negro tinued applause.) It is not unjust; it is just, wise, and enabled to render himself useful to himself and to the sobeneficent. (Hisses, followed by applause, and cries of ciety in which he is placed. "Put him out.") Let him stay, gentlemen.

PRESIDENT.-Let him stay there. Order.

MR. O'CONOR.-Serpents may hiss, but good men will hear. (Cries again of "Put him out;" calls to order; confusion for a time.)

THE PRESIDENT.-If anybody hisses here, remember that every one has his own peculiar way of expressing himself, and as some birds only understand hissing, they must hiss. (Applause)

These are the principles, gentlemen, which the extreme measures of abolitionism compel us to enforce. This is the ground that we must take, or abandon our cherished Union. We must no longer favor political leaders who talk about negro Slavery being an evil; nor must we advance the indefensible doctrine that negro Slavery is a thing which, although pernicious, is to be tolerated merely because we have made a bargain to tolerate it. We must turn away from the teachings of fanaticism. We must look at negro slavery as it is, remembering that the voice of inspiration, as found in the sacred volume, nowhere condemns the bondage of those who are fit only for bondage. Yielding to the clear decree of nature, and the dietates of sound philosophy, we must pronounce that institution just, benign, lawful and proper. The Constitution established by the fathers of our Republic, which recognized it, must be maintained. And that both may stand together, we must maintain that neither the institution itself, nor the Constitution which upholds it, is wicked or unjust; but that each is sound and wise, and entitled to our fullest support.

MR. O'CONOR.-Gentlemen, there is an animal upon this earth that has no faculty of making its sentiments known in any other way than by a hiss. I am for equal rights. (Three cheers were here given for Mr. O'Conor, three for Gov. Wise, and three groans for John Brown.) I beg of you, gentlemen, all of you who are of my mind at least, to preserve silence, and leave the hissing animal in the full enjoyment of his natural privileges. (Cries of "Good, good," laughter and applause.) The first of our race that offended was taught to do so by that hissing animal. (Laughter and applause.) The first human society that was ever broken up through sin and discord, had its happy union dissolved by the entrance of that We must visit with our execration any man claiming our animal. (Applause.) Therefore I say it is his privilege to suffrages, who objects to enforcing, with entire good faith, hiss. Let him hiss on. (Cries of "Good, good," laughter the provisions of the Constitution in favor of negro Slavery, and applause.) Gentlemen, I will not detain you much or who seeks, by any indirection, to withhold its protection longer. (Cries of "Go on, go on.") I maintain that from the South, or to get away from its obligations upon negro Slavery is not unjust-(a voice-"No, sir," ap- the North. Let us henceforth support no man for public plause,) that it is benign in its influence upon the white office whose speech or action tends to induce assaults upon man and upon the black. (Voices-"That's so, that's the territory of our Southern neighbors, or to generate inso," applause.) I maintain that it is ordained by na-surrection within their borders. (Loud applause.) These ture; that it is a necessity of both races; that, in cli- are the principles upon which we must act. This is what mates where the black race can live and prosper, nature we must say to our brethren of the South. If we have sent herself enjoins correlative duties on the black man and men into Congress who are false to these views, and are on the white, which cannot be performed except by the seeking to violate the compact which binds us together, we preservation, and, if the hissing gentleman please, the must ask to be forgiven until we have another chance to manperpetuation of negro Slavery. ifest our will at the ballot-boxes. We must tell them that these men shall be consigned to privacy (applause), and that true men, men faithful to the Constitution, men loving all portions of the country alike, shall be elected in their stead. And, gentlemen, we must do more than promise this-we must perform it. (Loud applause, ful

I am fortified in this opinion by the highest tribunal in our country, that venerable exponent of our institutions, and of the principles of justice-the Supreme Court of the United States. That court has held, on this subject, what wise men will ever pronounce to be sound and just doc

States, and the negre beadman in the Southern States The white man is to be emancipated at twenty-one. because his God-given intellect entitles him to emancipation and fits him for the duties to devolve upon him. The negro, to be sure, is a bondman for life. He may be sold from one master to another, but where is the ill in that?-one may be as good as another. If there be laws with respect to the mode of sale, which by separating man and wife do occasionally lead to that which shocks humanity, and may be said to violate all propriety and all conscience-if such things are done, let the South alone and they will correct the evil. Let our brethren of the South take care of their own domestic institutions and they will do it. (Applause.) They will so govern themselves as to suppress acts of this description, if they are occasionally committed, as perhaps they are, and we must all admit that they are contrary to just conceptions of right and humanity. I have never yet heard of a nation conquered from evil practices, brought to the light of civilization, brought to the light of religion or the knowledge of the Gospel by the bayonet, by the penal laws, or by external persecutions of any kind. It is not by declamation and outcry against a people from those abroad and outside of their territory that you can improve their manners or their morals in any respect. No; if, standing outside of their territory, you attack the errors of a people, you make them cling to their faults. From a sentiment somewhat excusable-somewhat akin to selfrespect and patriotism-they will resist their nation's enemy. Let our brethren of the South alone, gentlemen, and if there be any errors of this kind, they will correct them.

lowed by three cheers for Mr. O'Conor, and a tiger.) But a word more, gentlemen, and I have done. (Cries of" Go on.") I have no doubt at all that what I have said to you this evening will be greatly misrepresented. It is very certain that I have not had time enough properly to enlarge upon and fully to explain the interesting topics on which I have ventured to express myself thus boldly and distinctly, taking upon myself the consequences, be they what they may. (Applause.) But I will say a few words by way of explanation. I have maintained the justice of Slavery; I have maintained it, because I hold that the negro is decreed by nature to a state of pupilage under the dominion of the wiser white man, in every clime where God and nature meant the negro should live at all. (Applause.) I say a state of pupilage; and, that I may be rightly understood, I say that it is the duty of the white man to treat him kindly; that is the interest of the white man to treat him kindly. (Applause.) And further, it is my belief that if the white man, in the States where Slavery exists, is not interfered with by the fanatics who are now creating these disturbances, whatever laws, whatever improvements, whatever variations in the conduct of society are necessary for the purpose of enforcing in every instance the dictates of interest and humanity, as between the white man and the black, will be faithfully and fairly carried out in the progress of that improvement in all these things in which we are engaged. It is not pretended that the master has a right to slay his slave; it is not pretended that he has a right to be guilty of harshness and inhumanity to his slave. The laws of all the Southern States forbid that; we have not the right here at the North to be guilty of cruelty toward a horse, It is an indictable offence to commit such cruelty. The same laws exist in the South, and if there is any failure in enforcing them to the fullest extent, it is due to this external force, which is pressing upon the Southern States, and compels them to abstain perhaps from many acts beneficent toward the negro which otherwise would be performed. (Applause.) In truth, in fact, in deed, the white man in the slaveholding States has no more authority by law of the land over his slave than our laws allow to a father over his minor children. He can no more violate humanity with respect to them, than a father in any of the free States of this Union can exercise acts violative of humanity toward his own son under the age of twenty-one. So far as the law is concerned, you own your boys, and have a right to their services until they are twenty-one. You can make them work for you; you have the right to hire out their services and take their earnings; you have the right to chastise them with judg-in the councils of the nation men who are true to the ment and reason if they violate your commands; and they are entirely without political rights. Not one of them at the age of twenty years and eleven months even, can go to the polls and and give a vote. Therefore, gentlemen, before the law, there is but one difference between the free white man of twenty years of age in the Northern

There is but one way in which you can thus leave them to the guidance of their own judgment-by which you can retain them in this Union as our brethren, and perpetuate this glorious Union; and that is, by resolving-without reference to the political party or faction to which any one of you may belong, without reference to the name, political or otherwise, which you may please to bearresolving that the man, be he who he may, who advocates the doctrine that negro Slavery is unjust, and ought to be assailed or legislated against, or who agitates the subject of extinguishing negro Slavery in any of its forms as a political hobby, that that man shall be denied your suffrages, and not only denied your suffrages, but that you will select from the ranks of the opposite party, or your own, if necessary, the man you like least, who entertains opposite sentiments, but through whose instrumentality you may be enabled to defeat his election, and to secure Constitution, who are lovers of the Union-men who cannot be induced by considerations of imaginary benevolence for a people who really do not desire their aid, to sacrifice or to jeopard in any degree the blessings we enjoy under this Union. May it be perpetual. (Great and continued cheering.)

THE REAL QUESTION STATED.

LETTER FROM CHARLES O'CONOR TO A COMMITTEE OF MERCHANTS.

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 1859.

CHAS. O'CONOR, Esq. The undersigned, being desirous of
circulating as widely as possible, both at the North and at the
South, the proceedings of the Union Meeting held at the
Academy of Music last evening, intend publishing in pamphlet
form, for distribution, a correct copy of the same.
Will you be so kind as to inform us whether this step meets
your approval; and if so, furnish us with a corrected report
of your speech delivered by you on that occasion. Yours
respectfully,

LEITCH, BURNET & CO.,
GEO. W. & JEHIAL READ,
BRUFF, BROTHER & SEAVER,
C. B. HATCH & CO.,

DAVIS, NOBLE & CO.,

(Formerly FURMAN, DAVIS & Co.,) WESSON & COX,

CRONIN, HURXTHAL & SEARS, ATWATER, MULFORD CO. GENTLEMEN: The measure you propose meets my entire approval.

I have long thought that our disputes concerning negro Slavery would soon terminate, if the public mind could be

drawn to the true issue, and steadily fixed upon it. To effect this object was the sole aim of my address.

Though its ministers can never permit the law of the land to be questioned by private judgment, there is, nevertheless, such a thing as natural justice. Natural justice has the Divine sanction; and it is impossible that any buman law which conflicts with it should long endure.

Where mental enlightenment abounds, where morality is professed by all, where the mind is free, speech is free, and the press is free, is it possible, in the nature of things, that a law which is admitted to conflict with natu ral justice, and with God's own mandate, should long endure?

You a will admit that, within certain limits, at least, our Constitution does contain positive guaranties for the preservation of negro Slavery in the old States through all time, unless the local legislatures shall think fit to abolish it. And, consequently, if negro Slavery, however hu manely administered or judiciously regulated, be an institution which conflicts with natural justice and with God's law, surely the most vehement and extreme admirers of

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