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Selections: Speech Of Cassius M. Clay: Delivered At A Texas ...

Selections: Speech Of Cassius M. Clay: Delivered At A Texas ... image Selections: Speech Of Cassius M. Clay: Delivered At A Texas ... image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
March
Year
1844
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

(Concluded.) Gentlemen I know flatter themselves that there will be no dissolution of the Union. In 1803 and 1820 we are told there was the same loud talk thal there is now,about separation - that it will wear away once more as it did then. "It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope; we are apt to shut our eyes to the painful truth and to listen to the voice of that syren, till she has transformed us into beasts." Alas! that these lines of other days, made familiar by schoolboy declamation, should rush back upon the memory with their primitive awful energy. I know the North: at last they are in earnest. Twenty of her leading minds, her ablest, most patriotic citizens, have most solemnly declared in the face of men, that in the event of the annexation of Texas to this country, the Union shall be no more. Yes, sir, they have said it - depend upon it, they will do what they say they will do. Since the time, when in %e vindication of the law of 1833, 1 found it necessary in order to prevent the flood of Southern blacks from desolating our State to appeal to the first great principies of natural and American law, to sustain my policy against blind and maddened avarice, I have received papers upon the vital subject of slavery, and I think I know as much of the true feelings of Northern men as any other man in Kentucky. They are divided into three parties upon the subject of slavery. First, there is the small band of abolitionists, who are for violence, if necessary, in the extermination of slavery. They are few indeed, and deserve, as they receive, the execration of good men in both the north and south. Then comes the Liberty party, embracing a large portion of the legal knowledge, the christianity and patriotism óf the North. Taking the ground first occupied by Washington himself, that slavery was the creature of the law and should be abolished by law, they appeal to the ballot-box, not the bayonet; like the great Irish Reformer, having faith in the power of reason, truth and virtue,they expect to achieve a bloodless revolution, more glorious than any yet arising from force and arms. This party, a few years ago, numbered but seven thousnnd voters; now in. 1843, they poll sixty-five thousand men at the ballot-box; having doubled themselves everyyear from the time of their organization. At such a continued rate of increase, I leave it to the reflecting to determine how long it will be before they absorb the whole political power of the North. Lastly. there is the great mass of Northern men, who are opposed to slavery in principie, but who forbear to take an active part for its removal; not because they do not feel many of its evils, but because they fear the consequences of entering upon untried scènes, preferring according to the oft rëpeated maxim, to bear the evils they have. rath"er than to fly to others we know not of. Then there remáin a fragment of men, who are the shameless advocates of slavery; with a perverse nature, such as inspires the unworthy bosoms of convicts, they pride themselves upon their pre-eminencc in guilt, and challenge the abhorrénce of mankind to elev;ite them to that notoriety which they have despaired of obtaining by virtuous dceds. In estimating Northern feeíing, I shall pass them over entirely, as in speaking of the morals of Kentuckians, I would not enter the penitentiary for illustration. So in speaking of the north, I mention not these men, regarding them rather as outcasts, whomGod in his vengeance has inflicted upon 11 nations,and who are peculiar to none. Then, sir, these twenty men of whom have before spoken, are the true exponents of the sentiujents of the great mass f Northern freemen, and of course, alo to that extent of the two fragmentary parties which I have enumerated. You cnow the opinions of these men - they ïave avowed them in Congress - they are before the world. They say that lavery, not content with the immunities allowed it in the original compact, has ranscended its assigned limits, and reckessly trenched upon the liberties of the North, through a violated Constitution. - They complain that the right of petition s denied - that the freedom of speech and he press is suppressed - that members of Congress are censured for opinion's sake - that the post office is wrested by vioence from the purposes of its creation; hey 'are outraged, that their colored citizens, cooks, sailors and others, contrary o the express language of the Constituion, instead of being allowed the privieges of citizenship, are thrown into prison and deprived of their rights without ust cause; they are indignantthat the free citizens are horribly murdereci in the South for opinion's sake, without having violated any state or. national law, or without having been tried by a jury of their peers which is their inalienable right. They are dissatisfied, that the most solemn treaties of the United States should be nullified by the extensión of the ;aws of Georgia over the Cherokee nation. and by which the missionaries, free citizens of the North, were thrown into prison, aad kept contrary to law, and in disregardof the Supreme Court of the Union; they areaggrieved at the caus and progress of the Florida war, by whic! forty milhons of dollars have been taken from the hard earnings of the people, by which many thousand valuable lives hav been sacrified by disease and the Indian rifle, by which our national honor wa tarnished in the employment of blooc hounds, to drive the unoffending savage from the homes of their fathers, whic'were their rightful inheritance - all o which they attribute to the solé cause o saving runaway slaves from fleeing int those irapassable swamps. They aresoj emnly of opinión that of right, no ne Slave State could have been adraiited int this Union. They believe that there is no good rea son why slaves held as property shouk be represented in Congress to the exclu sion of all other property, and that justice as well as their own interest, calis for a change in the Constitution, so as to des troy this inequality. They are opposec to the continuance of slavery in the Dis trict of Columbia, in the Territories, anc at the impunity of the coasting and domestic slave trade. "Annex Texas," say they, "and slavery will acquire such strength as to destroy the remnant of liberty that yet lingers in the North and in the South." All these grievances they have reluctantly borne, for the peace, harmony, and permanency of the Union, bought by the common blood of our ancestors. Should the South, now, anew, viólate the Constituticn for the sole purpose of extending slavery, they are not the true descendants of the men of Lexington and Bunker's Hill, if they do not part from slavery and the ruinous consequences at once and forever. And because I will not shut my eyes to tJie danger which threatens us with immediate dissolution - because„I dare to speak fearlessly the trutb, holding with Jefferson, that there is no error so dangerous that it may not be combatted with reason and argument - because I will not for popular favor prove a re negade from the faith of my ancestors - because I will not for the sake of office and political promotion, prostitute myself to the basest and most dishonorable purposes,by avowingin public what in private every one who is nota madman daily acknowledges to be utterly false, "that slavery is a blessing" - because I ara willing to allow that the six hundred thousand free white citizens of this commonwealth have some rights as well as the slaveholders - I am tobe run down as an abolitionist, and the ban of the empire is tobe denounced againstme. I cannot write an answer to a complimentary letter from Mr. Giddings.of Ohio, but I am pubiished throughout the land as an enemy to my country. And when, in the New York Tribune. I set forth my truc position, and in the defencc of which I challenge both North and South to shake me, my letter is denied publication in the presses of both political parties; and yet still goes on the eterna] prating about the freedom of the press; sycophantic speeches are daily poured into the ears of the dear people; whilst that sanie pcopïc are barred by despolic inlolerance from receiving any ïight by which they can fauno their rights, and free Ihemsehes from tlie competition of slave labor, ivkich briitgsgnorance and heggary to their door. - appeal to mankind against such fiendish njustice. If public opinión be indeed mnipotent, then let its thunders strike error into the faithless sentinels oh the vatchtowerof liberty - the false prophete vho have basely usurped the trípoda of he press. To say that I am an Abolitionist, in the sense in which the enemie of all moral progress would have you beieve, that I would sanction insurrection, and massacre - my wife, children, mother, brothers and sisters, and relations and friends, are all hostages for my sincerity, when, restraining myself ta the use of courteous terms, I repel the unjust and dishonoririg imputation. That I am an abolitionist in the sense that I would takeaway, without just compensation, the right ofproperty in slaves, which the laws secure to me and some thirty ar forty thousand citizens of Kentucky, my letter to. the Tribune, which is before the world,. disproves. Still, sir, I am an abolitionist. Suchan abolitionist as I have been from my joyhood - such an abolitionist as I was ii 1836, when I declared in my place in tha House of Representatives to which I was. ust then elected, that i f the Constitution did not give us power to protect ourselves. against the infernal sla ve trade, that I renouhced it, and would appeal to a convention for a new one. Such an abolitionist as I was again in 1840, when I declared in the same House of Representatives, that I wishècf to place the State of Kentucky in such a position by sustaining the law of 1833, that she could move atany time she thought condusive to her highest interest,to free herself from slave. ry. Such an abolitionist as I have ever avowed myself in public speeches ana writings to the people of this district, that Kentucky was wise enough to free herself from the counsels of pro-slavery men,, f hat slavery would perish of itself, by thevoluntary action of masters and the irresistible forcé of circumstances which would compel the people to the use of free instead of slave labor, as every way most advantgaeous. Such an abolitionist os were the band of immortal men wiio formed the Federal Constitution, who would not have the word "slave" ia that sacred instrument, am I. Such an abolitionist as Washington, who, so far from lending countenance io the propogation of slavery, as you are now doing, declared that on all proper occasions his infiuence and his vote should be cast for the extinguishrnent of slavery among men, am I also. Such an abolitionist as was JefFerson, the great father of Democracy,.whom you all profess to follow, who foretold what hassince partially come to pass, that slavery, if not destroyed, would jeopard and finally extinguish the liberties of the whiies themselves, that the slavery of the black race, i f not remedied by the whites, would at last remedy itself - such an abolitionist am I also. And being such, 1 take issue with the opinión that has been here to-day, as it has been often. elsewhere, most dogmatically advaneed, that the question is "whether the whites shall rule the blacks, or the blacks shall rule the whites." Such an issue is false in practice, and so proven to be false by all experience. It is derogatory to human nature and blasphemy against God himself. All America, except Brazil and the United States, have freed their slaves;and are all the whites, svesin consequence? At the Revolution, on the day of the Declaration of independence, all the States Rottecit, the profound historian of the world, says: "lt is far more difficult to maintain liberty than to acquire it. - It may be gained by a momentary elevation, by the power of transient enthusiasm; but it can be maintained only by constant exertion and virtue, harmony, vigilance, and the hard victory over selJisincss." Speaking of the first censure of the 2)ress, he cannot subdue his indignationto the usual historicaldenunciation, but he thus breaks forth: - "Pope Alexander VI. the most detestable of tyrants, first established it. Curse on hismemory! The press is towords what the tongue is to thoughts. Who will constrain the tongue to ask permission for words it shall speak, or forbid the soul to genérate thoughts? What should ie frce and sacred, ifnot the press?" The Now York Tribune has gained an enviable fame, by maintaining the true freedom of the press in America. - The N.Y. Courier and Enquirer attempts to read the Tribune a lesson, and threatens it with the anathematical buil of the Whigs on account of its liberal discussion of all the great interests of society, which he, of the Courier, fieems injurious to the party. If the Whig party can be sustained only by a virtual censure of the press - then let it perish forever. Butno - liberty is the soul of the whig party, which, under the miserable cure of tho priest of the Courier, would be eternally andjustly damned! The memory of the Courier will be as evanescent as the shifting small beer poiitics on which itfeeds. The Tribune will become a part of the j history of the nineteenth century and I shall live with it.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News