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 SPEECH 
 
 HON. S. S. COX, OF OHIO, 
 
 IX KEPLT TO 
 
 HOI. THO][AS COR¥II. 
 
 ELEOTIOISr OF SPEAKER. 
 
 DELIVEEED IN THE HOUSE OF EEPEESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 8, 1S59. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY LEMUEL TOWERE 
 
 1859. 
 
e43G 
 
OIlio Politics — Republicans opponents of L.aAV, Order, and the Cou' 
 
 stitutiou — Hia^lier-la^v analyzed— tlie Bemocracy 
 
 of tlie Northwest. 
 
 SPEECH. 
 
 Mr. CdV.wiN havint^ addressed the House at some length in favor of Mr. Sherman, 
 the Republican candidate for Speaker, Mr. COX having obtained tlie floor, said— 
 
 Mr. Clerk: I wish that some other member from Ohio would answer 
 the very facetious and sophistical argument of ray colleague from^ the 
 district uear my own, (Mr. Corwin\) I do not think, sir, that he differs 
 so much from the Democratic party, as perhaps his position here might 
 lead us to believe. But I do not believe that the masses of the Repuhlican 
 party in the State of Ohio approve of his sentiments as here enunciated. 
 I have always thought that the distinguished gentleman — and I have 
 always quietly given'him a great deal of credit for it — went into the Re- 
 publican party, with his national sentiments, for the purpose of breaking- 
 down its sectionalism and destroying its distinctive features. But his 
 speech to-day ought not to go to the country, without some response from 
 a Democratic member from his own State. This response I will endeavor 
 to give, without premeditation or preparation. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, it seems to Die proper, as the nominee presented by the Re- 
 publican party for Speaker is a Republican from the State of Ohio, that 
 the politics of the Republican party of thrft State, of which he is an expo- 
 nent, should be discussed. I am ready to say here, that that nominee is 
 personally as unexceptionable to the Democratic party of Ohio, as any 
 man of the other side, unless it might be my friend who has just taken his 
 seat, (Mr. Corwin.) 
 
 My friend paid his respects to my district last year, and he there 
 charged me with inconsistencies which are not quite so glaring as those 
 which he has exhibited here to-day. But I give my acknoivledgment 
 to the gentleman, for the increased vote which the Democratic ticket re- 
 ceived in that district, in consequence of the national speeches that he 
 made there. A great many of the peo[)le of southern Ohio, a great many 
 national men, and a great many Democrats, coincide, I must say, in the 
 remarks of my coUejigue, (Mr. ConwiN ;) but it is not true that what he 
 has said embodies the'^principles of the Republican party. It is not true 
 that he speaks for their organization in Ohio. It is not true that he speaks 
 the sentiments of their platform. I will show you, that that organization 
 is one subversive of the Constitution, one that strikes down the judges of 
 the State for daring to sustain that Constitution, and that the men in that 
 party who do not go along with the men who speak the abolition senti- 
 ment of the Western Reserve, are mercilessly slaughtered in Ohio, They 
 have no controlling political status with their party. 
 
 T know, sir, that gentleman stand here upon this floor, representing Re- 
 publican constituents, who, as Mr. Greely says, have only a slight varnish 
 of Republicanism. Old Whigs go before the State conventions, make 
 their speeches, and present their candidates — national men but they al- 
 ways are overruled. The conventions are turned into slaughter-houses 
 for national men, who still cling to the Republican party. How was it in 
 respect to striking down the chief justice of our State, for daring to do his 
 duty? I do not know whether the gentleman who aspires to be Speaker 
 indorsed that movement in convention. I hope that he did not. I hope 
 
that he Lelonged to that other wing, who sustained Judge Swan in his de- 
 cision in favor of the constitutionality, of the fugitive slave law. But the 
 fact remains, and cannot be blotted out; and so long as Ohio politics are 
 now made a national matter, and the endeavor is to give thera a national 
 tinge and color, I want the country to understand the lawless and orderless 
 character of that organization. How did that question come up in the 
 last campaign of our State ? I will give you the facts in a few words. 
 
 A Kentuckian lost his slave, who had escaped into Ohio. The slave 
 went to the neighborhood of the University of Oberlin. When he got 
 there, he v/as aided and protected by that class of men, who think that 
 their inward convictions should be the highest law of their action, irrespec- 
 tive of constitutional obligation. The owner of that slave found a warrant 
 for his action in the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it. 
 He went to the United States commissioner for the process cf recapture. 
 He proceeded lawfully. It was found that he had a right to reclaim the 
 fugitive and take him back to his service. After obtaining his writ at Co- 
 lumbus, v/ith United States officers, he went up to the neighborhood of 
 Oberlin. There the slave was arrested ; and after the arrest, a party of 
 persons — Plumb, Peck, and others of the crowd of disunionists who dis- 
 honor that part of Ohio — rescued him from the custody of the proper offi- 
 cers of the Government. The United States officers did not choose to lay 
 under the particular odium of failing to perform their duty. They went 
 to the United States court at Cleveland, and there had these Oberlin res- 
 cuers indicted. They were tried — these men who have, as they claim, the 
 peculiar sanction of God Almighty to rise above law in this country. 
 They were convicted. And what was the result? 
 
 Why, sir, a scheme was got up by the Piepublican party, as I will show 
 you, to break down that conviction. They started the idea that the law 
 was unconstitutional. They sent for Judge Spaulding, who is the fabrica- 
 tor of the Republican platform of 1856. He declared the fugitive slave 
 law to be unconstitutional. It was urged that before punishment, the case 
 should be taken before the supreme court. Down to the supreme court 
 they went, black and white, lawyers and politicians, down to Columbus 
 they hurried, to know whether the law was constitutional or not. You will 
 bear in mind that there is a local sectionalism in the Republican party in 
 Ohio, as there is a sectionalism in the Republican party outside of Ohio. 
 We had five judges on our supreme bench. They were the tribunal to try 
 the question. Three lived in the South and two in the North. Judge 
 Swan, one of my constituents, "lived in Columbus. " Now," said these gen- 
 tlemen, " we will make these judges decide- this law to be unconstitutional. 
 Judge Swan's time is nearly out — how can we reach him ? We will do it, 
 by bringing this discussion before the supreme court. If he does not de- 
 cide that law to be unconstitutional, and release these men who have been 
 convicted, then we will put him to the political torture." Accordingly, 
 the eleven counties of the Western Reserve, which give the Republicans 
 their majority in the State, were appealed to ; and I want it understood 
 that out of three hundred and fifty thousand votes cast in our State, there 
 are one hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and sixty-six good 
 Democratic voters who have no approbation for law breaking and servile 
 insurrection. (Applause upon the Democratic benches and in the galle- 
 ries.) In that State we have a Democracy as firm as any which the Union 
 can boast ! 
 
 Well, sir, on this Western Reserve, which rules the Republican party in 
 the State of Ohio, these men asserted that the United States officers ought 
 to be hung as pirates, and they got together and formed a society 
 
wLIch they calUad "The Sons of Liberty," "Wtat more did ^hey do? 
 The gentleman who preceded me (Mr. CoftWix) told us about the 
 Cleveland convention, I would like bis attention, that we ma,y gat 
 this matter right before the country. That convention was intended 
 to intimidate Judge Swan. They held it, and passed resolutions for 
 that purpose. When thev came to that meeting, ten thousand strong, 
 they marched through the streets of Cleveland with Bcditious banners and 
 significant music. I saw a description of it in a Republican paper. First 
 marched the Sons of Liberty, with Giddings atth-err head — Giddings, whd 
 had upon this floor announced himself in favor of a se.rvile insurrection, as 
 I will conclusively show, notwithstanding the di>sd!iiiner of his successor 
 yesterday. They marched through the stje«ts with banners, which were 
 revolutionary against the Federal Government, aad which bore emblems 
 which found their out-cmp at llarper's Ferry. One banner is noticeable. 
 On one side of it is written : 
 
 Ashtabula. 
 Rcgnaute Populo. 
 On the other : 
 
 Sons of LiSerty, 1769. 
 
 Down with the Stamp Act! 
 
 1859. 
 
 Down with the Fugitive Act ! 
 
 Not "repeal it," for they were not then in favor of that, and no Repub- 
 lican that I have ever known, has risen in his seat here and moved to 
 repeal that law. 'And now, though committed to its ren*^'^' by their reso- 
 lutions passed in convention, there is not one of them ^et up here and 
 move the repeal of that enactment. The very genuieman (Mr. Cor- 
 win) upon the committee who reported the resolution to the convention, 
 and who i-ustained the nominee placed upon the platform then laid down, 
 will not vote, as he has told us, in favor of the repeal of that law. Yes, 
 sir, it was "down with the fugitive slave law;" not to repeal it, but to 
 crush it in the dust; and, as if to give significance to their talk upon this 
 subject, they marched through the streets to the emsic of the old French 
 revolutionary song — the Marseilles Hymn, that glorious inspiration of 
 Democracy ; that defiance, never hurled against constitutional liberty, till 
 then ; but against despotic kingcraft ever. I have understood that these 
 "Sons of Liberty" and the students from Oberlin sung it in French. Now 
 you know our friends from New England, who made up the Sons of Liberty, 
 have a na;^al twang peculiar to tteir singing, and the French language h;>s 
 the same nasal peculiarity, and when the two were combined, they produced 
 the most thrilling efi;ect in the streets of Cleveland, (Laughter.) Aux 
 armes citoyens ! Formez hattallions ! (Great laughter.) You can im- 
 agine how it sounded, Thev marched down ten thousand strong and 
 appointed Giddings their chairman. Who is he \ We have heard him in 
 this Hall. We know who he is, and of what party are those who stood 
 around him here to give him aid and comfort as he preached his disunion 
 and sectional doctrines. 
 
 Yesterday, while the gentleman from Tenaesseo (Mr. Nelson) was ad- 
 dressing the House in one of his Union strains, in order to show up the 
 disunionists, he quoted from the famous or infamous Giddings appeal in 
 favor of servile insurrection, and of which the Ilarper's Ferry aflair is the 
 legitimate fruit. But the successor of Giddings arose and denied that that 
 gentleman ever uttered such a sentiment upon this floor. And I have 
 recently seen that the Journal of Commerce, of New York, has been com- 
 .pelled to take back that sentiment, in consequence of the denial of Mr. 
 
Giddings. But tliat denial will not do. It is in the Congressional 
 Globe, as the gentlema.n read it. It will be found on page 648 of 
 the Congressional Globe of the first session of the Thirty- Third Congress ; 
 and I will have it read, that gentlemen may see where the seed was sown 
 of which this servile insurrection at Harper's Ferry was the inevitable 
 sequence. 
 
 Mr. Palmer. Will the gentleman yield a moment, that I may have 
 read, in this connection, a resolution adopted 
 
 Mr. Cox. Wait until I get through. I know what that resolution is. 
 Here is what Mr. Giddings said : 
 
 "Sir, I would intimidate no one; but I tell yoii there is a spirit in the North 
 which v\'ill set at defiance all the low and unworthy machinations of this Executive,, 
 and of the minions of it? power. When the contest shall come ; when the thunder 
 shall roll, and the lightning fla.jh ; when the slaves shall rise in the South ; when, 
 in imitation of the Cuban bondmen, the southern slaves of the South shall feel that 
 they are men; when they feel the stirring emotions of immortality, and recognize 
 the stirring truth that they are men, and entitled to the rights which God has be- 
 stowed upon them ; when the slaves shall feel that, and when masters shall turn 
 pale and tremble when their dwellings shall smoke, and dismay sit on each counte- 
 nance, then, sir, I do not say ' we will laugh at vour calamity, and mock when your 
 fear eometh,' but I do say, when that time shall come, the lovers of our race will 
 stand forth, and exert the legitimate powers of this Government for freedom. We 
 shall then have constitutional power to act for the good of our country, and do jus- 
 tice to the slave. Th»n will we strike off the shackles from the limbs of the slaves. 
 That will be a period when this Government will have power to act between slavery 
 and freedom, and when it can make peace by giving freedom to the slaves. And 
 let me tell you, Mr. Spe^vker, tliat that time hastens. It is rolling forward. The 
 President is exerting a power that will hasten it, though not intended by him. I 
 hail it as I do the approaching dawn of that political and moral miUennium which 
 I am well assured will come upon the world." 
 
 I would not have referred to this matter but for the denial of Mr. Gid- 
 dings's successor. 
 
 Mr. HuTCHiKs. If I mistake not, the extract read from the Globe is not 
 the extract quoted by the gcutleman from Tennessee yesterday. That ex- 
 tract is as follows : 
 
 " I look forward to the day wlien there shall be a servile insurrection in the South; 
 when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and led on by British ofhcers, shall 
 assert his freedom, and wage a war of extermination against his master. And 
 though we may not mock at their calamity, nor laugh when their fear «ometh, yet 
 we will hail it as the dawn of a political millennium." 
 
 Is that, word for word, what the gentleman has read ? 
 
 Mr. Cox. I do not know, nor care whether it was word for word, for I 
 said yesterday that I had not compared it with the original. I said yes- 
 terday that the sentiment was the very same; but there it is, from the 
 Globe, every whit as obnoxious. 
 
 Mr. HuTCHiNS. That is another thing. 
 
 Mr. Cox. Let me ask the gentleman if he endorses that sentiment? 
 
 Mr. IIuTCHiNS. I will say to the gentleman that, when the House is 
 organized, and I can get the floor at the proper time, I will answer all 
 questions which may be put to me; but I will not answer any now,. 
 (Hisses from the Democratic benches.) Will the gentleman allow me to 
 ask him a question ? (Cries of "Oh, no ! that won't do I") 
 
 Mr. Cox. I understand that my colleague was sent here as the successor 
 of Mr. Giddings, because he was even yet more radical than was Giddings 
 himself, who was compelled to stay at home, because, in an unguarded, 
 moment, he voted for the Montgomery-Crittenden bill, which permitted 
 the people of a Territory to form a constitution recognizing slavery. How 
 that may be, I know not ; but in pursuance of my other statement, I will 
 
refer to the Appendix of tlie Congressional Globe, of tlie iame session, page 
 418, where there has been some modification of that sentiment of Mr. Gid- 
 dings, but not such a modification, aa to destroy the murderous force and 
 seditious intent of the extract cited by the gentleman from' Tennessee, (Mr. 
 Nelsok.) 
 
 What I want to show, particularly to my colleague, (Mr. Coewin,) who 
 does not difier from me so much <->?! this subject, is that in tte last_ cam- 
 paign in Ohio, he was supporting a platform, entirely different from his sen- 
 timents here proclaimed. He aided a man placed upon that platform who 
 had no af^uity with his doctrines, in relation either to the fugitive slave 
 law, or to the perpetuity of the Union, or to the sanctity of the constitu- 
 tional compact. 
 
 Mr. CoBWH*. Are not the doctrines I put forward to-day the same as 
 those avowed in Ohio by Governor Dennison? 
 
 Mr. Cox. I will answer. The gentleman sustained Goyernor Denni- 
 son. But mark you ! at the same r'evolutionary meeting. Governor Denni- 
 son was present 
 
 Mr, CoRwiN. No, he was not. 
 
 Mr. Cox. He was present, as I was about to say, by letter; more sig- 
 nificant, because more premeditated, than by personal presence. And at 
 that meeting, which was called for the purpose of breaking down the law 
 and the Constitution, this letter from Governor Dennison, date^l May 20, 
 1859, was read. I will read the concluding paragraphs : 
 
 " Let me express my ardent hope that the proceedings of your eonvention may be 
 puch as will permanently eontritute to the advancement of the saerad pi-mCiples of 
 freedom, justice, and humanity, which have been so violently assailed by the im- 
 prisonment in your eounty jail of Plumb and Peck and thair devoted colleagues, 
 under the insulting provisions of the fugitive slave act." 
 
 What does that mean? My venerable friend here says 
 
 Mr. CoRWiN. Not venerable, if you please. 
 
 Mr. Cox. Well, my young fi-iend from Ohio, then — in the psesence of the 
 ladies, (Laughter) — my young friend from Ohio says that be supported Mr. 
 Dennison, who was the embodiment of the principles of the paity, and iie 
 sustained him in all his principles and all his conduct. 
 
 Mr. CoRwijr. I ask if Govenior Dennison did not, in all bife speeches in 
 Ohio, advance the same doctrines as I did ? 
 
 Mr. Cox. If Governor Dennison advanced the same doctiixies .as the 
 gentleman, then he must have run counter to his own most deliberate 
 written statement. He says, in effect^-" You Plumb, and you Peck, and 
 all your 'devoted colleagues' now in jail for breaking the law of the United 
 States — you men who have rescued from the United States officers one 
 properly in their charge; you who were guilty of breaking the law and the 
 ♦ Constitution, you were engaged in the cause of liberty, humanity, and jus- 
 tice" — forsooth ! And the gentleman says he sustained Mr. Dennison, and 
 sustained the sentiments Dennison advocated. If he sustained him, he 
 sustained for justice that which breaks down the courts; he sustained that 
 for humanity and liberty, which will break down the Constitution, which 
 under God is the best and most refined system of civil polity that God ever 
 vouchsafed to man for civil government. (Great applause.) 
 
 Mr. Ashley. Did not the so-ealled Democratic party sustain Judge 
 Eanney ? And did not Ptanney oppose the fugitive slave law ? 
 
 Mr. Cox. As to the last question — no, sir 1 Judge Eanney stood by the 
 fugitive slave law, after it was enacted. Yes, and the old Whig party, too, 
 in 1850, of which Dennison was a member, of which he was the presiden- 
 tial elector in 1852, approved in their platform, of the compromise measures, 
 
iaeluding the fugitive slave law, as a finality on that subject. The gentleman 
 near me, (Mr. Bingham,) I b»lieve, then sustained the same measures. But 
 last year, they were found in convention, voting against that finality. They 
 regarded it as a dead letter. It was of no consequence any longer with ref- 
 erence to this Government. The comity between the States was nothing. 
 They yielded to the " pressure" referred to by the gentleman, (Mr. Cor- 
 yns,) which came from the Reserve. 
 
 Mr. BiNaHAM. I understand my colleague to make the remark that, in 
 the year 1850, I approved of the fugitive slave act. I beg leave to say- 
 that my colleague has fallen unintentionally into a great mistake in refer- 
 ence to that. In 1850, according to my recollection, and I do not think 
 I am mistaken, there was a convention in session in the city of Nashville 
 which had for its avowed object the disruption and destruction of the 
 American Union and Constitution. A convention was called in Cincinnati 
 for the purpose of denouncing 
 
 Several Voices. That is not so. 
 
 Mr. Cox. I ask you simply whether you sustained the fugitive slave 
 law? 
 
 Mr. Bingham, I tell the gentleman that I did no such thing. 
 
 Mr. Cox. I am satisfied with the gentleman's answer. 
 
 Mr. Bingham. But will the gentleman do me the justice to permit me 
 to state what I did do? 
 
 Mr. Cox. I ask you whether you did or not, at Cincinnati, at a Union 
 meeting, make a speech sustaining the compromise measures of 1850, in- 
 cluding the fugitive slave law ? 
 
 Mr. Bingham. I did no such thing. 
 
 Mr. Cox. Then, sir, you were wrongly reported in the city papers. 
 
 Mr. Bingham. And in the same city paper I am reported as dissenting 
 openly and publicly in that speech to a resolution which declared that law 
 constitutional ; and I dissent from it to-day as I did then. The speech to 
 which I refer was very imperfectly reported in the papers. 
 
 Mr. Cox. Oh ! that was it ! Do you agree with my distinguished 
 friend (Mr. Corwin) in regard to its constitutionality ? 
 
 Mr. Bingham. I do not agree with him or any other man as to its 
 being constitutional. 
 
 Mr. Cox. Then, where are we to find any harmony in the Republican 
 party on this subject? 
 
 Mr. Bingham. I answer by saying, that you will find no such harmony 
 in yout own party. 
 
 Mr. Cox. That is no answer, sir. Our distinguished friend (Mr. CoR- 
 -WTn) who spoke to-day, says that he is the embodiment of that party ; and 
 the gentleman here (Mr. Bingham) must be a rebel. Mr. Clerk, I do not 
 understand where the head or the tail of the Republican party is. Is the * 
 gentleman (Mr. Corwin) the head or the tail ? (Great laughter.) I think 
 of it, as the Irishman thought of the elephant — "there is sure a tail at both 
 ends of the animal." (Great laughter.) 
 
 Now, I ask my distinguished friend, who is the candidate for Speaker, 
 (Mr. Sherman,) whether or not he believes in the constitutionality of the 
 fugitive slave law? I hope my friend will do me the courtesy to answer 
 this question. It is a serious matter. It relates to one of the compromises 
 of the Constitution ; one of the sacred compacts, under which the Republic 
 was. organized, and without which it could not have been made and could 
 not continue to exist. 
 
 Mr. Sherman. I decline, as I did the other day, to answer any inter- 
 rogatories. 
 
Mr. Cox. I did not Lear my colleapfue, 
 
 Mr. Shermax. I will repeat it : I decline to answer the interrogatory 
 of my colleague, as he knew I would ; and I will state to him, and to gen- 
 tlemen on the other side of the House, that I stand upon my public record. . 
 I do not expect the support of gentlemen on that side of the House, who 
 have, for the last four years, been engaged in a series of measures — none of 
 which I approve. I have no answers to give them. (Applause and hisses.) 
 Mr. Cox. I do not know what contest for the last four years, it is upon 
 which the gentleman ha« so conspicuous a'rccord. If it was in relation to sla- 
 very iu the Territories, or the admission of new States, I do not think his re- 
 cord is so very definite upon that subject, that he can treat ray (juestion so 
 cavalierly ; for when the State of Oregon came here with a constitution which 
 ay;\s free and made by the people— free, and made so by enough of them, 
 where then, was the record of the present candidate for Speaker ? Why, 
 sir, when that vote was taken, or just before it was taken, when he had a 
 chance to manifest his sympathy for freedom and in favor of the free State on 
 the Pacific, which was knocking at the door for admission, how did he treat 
 those noble Republicans who cry aloud for freedom in his State ? "Why, 
 by going precipitately out of yonder door. (Roars of laughter and ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Mr. SiiERMAx. Did I understand my colleague to allude to me as evad- 
 ing a vote ? 
 
 Mf. Cox. I saw the gentleman in the Hall before the vote was taken — 
 but a few moments before. 
 
 Mr. Shermax. Upon what question ? 
 Mr. Cox. The Oregon question. 
 
 Mr. Shermax. Mr. Clerk, allow me to say to ray colleague _ 
 
 Members on the Democratic side. Don't yield to him. He decHnes to 
 answer questions. 
 
 Mr. Cox. I will hear my colleague. 
 
 Mr. Sherman. I will say to my colleague that I never evade a vote. 
 Uniformly, upon all questions relating to the admission of Oregon, I voted 
 against it. I was engaged at the time of the final vote on a special com- 
 mittee of this House, and I weat down to the committee room with a gen- 
 tleman on the other side. 
 
 Mr. Cox. And yet every other member of your committee was here to 
 vote at the time the vote was taken ! Mr. Clerk, the gentleman says he 
 voted against the admission of Oregon in all its prelimiuajy stages, but 
 when it came to the cap-sheaf— when there was a fair opportunity of ex- 
 tending the last vote of welcome to the expected sister State — when there 
 was a chance to put the apex upon the pyramid of freedom — he was not 
 there ! 
 
 Xow, I only wish to expose to the country and to the House, the inconsis- 
 tent, heterogeneous elements which make up this mosaic, called Republi- 
 canism in Ohio. What are they ? Mr. Deunison, their candidate for Gov- 
 ernor, as I have already said, was an old line Whig in 1850, was a Gene- 
 ral Scott elector in 1852, and sustained the platform of the Whig party, 
 which said the fugitive slave law and the compromises of 1850 were a fi- 
 nality. He changed round this year; and, by the aid of the distinguished 
 gentleman who last spoke, (Mr. Corwin,) was made Governor of Ohio, by 
 the votes of the Western Reserve men to whom he bowed in the dust. By 
 the letter I have quoted, you will see that he changed all his notions as to 
 the fugitive slave act and the compromises of 1850. He hailed the infrac- 
 tion of the Constitution as justice ; he hailed the breaking of the law as 
 liberty ; he hailed the rescuing of the lawbreakers as humanity. And then 
 
10 
 
 he went out to the people of Ohio and undertook to eay, in his speeches to 
 one portion of our people, that he was an old line Whig, and in another 
 portion he sang the Marseilles Hymn with these Oberlin gentlemen, Jfow, 
 ,1 propose to read the rest of his letter. I wish to show who was the candi- 
 date sustained by these national Republicans from Ohio, including the gen- 
 tleman, (Mr. CoRWiN.) He said further : 
 
 "And that in the contest between the antagonisms of freedom and slavery, ["th$ 
 irrepressible conflict, " you see,] forced upon us by the southern oligarchy and its 
 northern allies, we may at all times proye ourselves worthy descendants of the heroi« 
 founders of the Republic, who declared one of the great purposes of the Federal 
 Constitution to be the securing to themselves and their posterity ' the blessings of 
 liberty.' 
 
 " Accept the assurance of my sincere regard personally, and my uncompromising 
 hostility to slavery and despotism in every form." 
 
 Well now, sir, what further took place at the meeting to which this let- 
 ter was addressed ? Why, I will tell you. Mr. Giddings, whose sentiments 
 were the natural antecedents and causes of the Harper's Ferry affair, dis- 
 missed that convention of ten thousand with a benediction. Their leaders 
 came down to the city of Columbus, black and white, to find out whether 
 or not the supreme court would decide adversely to the constitutionality of 
 the fugitive slave law. They thought they had it all right. Judge Swan's 
 time was nearly out. They thought they would hold this Abolition rod 
 from Cleveland over him. But, before I go further upon this point, allow 
 me to say that Governor Chase was at that meeting in Cleveland, but he 
 did not counsel exactly as my distinguished friend (Mr, Corwin) has said 
 he did. He did not counsel them to fight this matter at the ballot-box 
 altogether. He got up in that meeting of disorganizers and revolutionists 
 with their Marseilles Hymn, and their cries and shrieks of " down with the 
 fugitive slave law I" and he laid his hand upon his heart, or that particular 
 part of his anatomy where his heart is supposed to reside, (applause and 
 hisses,) and he said: 
 
 "Some of the most respected citizens of the State, whom he had known for yeai-?, 
 bad done what they believed to be right, and which not one man in ten thousand 
 would look up into the blue sky, with his hand on his heart, and say was not right." 
 
 He added these significant words : 
 
 "This case has been brought before the courts of the State, and they are bound 
 to carry out their duty under such a view of it. If the process for the release of 
 any prisoner should issue from the courts of the State, he was free to say that so 
 long as Ohio was a sovereign State, that process should be executed." 
 
 He promised that if the supreme court of Ohio, at Columbus, should de- 
 cide that law to be unconstitutional, as he thought it was unconstitutional, 
 that for one, as chief magistrate and commander-in-chief of the forces of 
 our State, he would see that that nullification was made effective, even to 
 the shedding of the blood of our citizens. (Laughter from the Republican 
 side.) Yes, sir, let them laugh over it. It is nevertheless true, that they 
 came down to Columbus, with some of your Harper's Ferry cut-throats 
 among them, to break down the laws of the United States, armed with 
 pistols and knives — black men and white men — to despoil the State of 
 Ohio of its fair reputation as one of the faithful States of this Confederacy. 
 
 Well, it so happened that they reckoned without their host. Judge 
 Swan delivered the opinion of the majority of the court* Though he had 
 been a Republican, and had received eighty thousand majority on their 
 ticket in 1854, he held that for sixty years, the law of 1793 had been upon 
 the statute book, acquiesced in and sustained. He held that the law of 
 1850, amending it, had been, by the same authority, sustained by the 
 supreme courts of Massachusetts, of Rhode Island, of Pennsylvania, of Ip- 
 
11 
 
 diana, and of California, and by the supreme court of Ohio on the circuit ; 
 and that the Wisconsin case, if properly examined, wjis no exception to tho 
 general rule, which decided that the act of 1793 and its amendment of 
 1850 were constitutional acts. Here is the exact language: 
 
 "Whatever differences of opinion may now exist in the piiblic mind, as to the 
 powers of Congress to punish rescuers, as provided in the acts of 1793 and 1850, no 
 such vital blow is given either to constitutional rights or State sovereignty by Cob- 
 gress thus enacting a law to punish a violation of tho Constitution of th.e United 
 States as to demand of this court the organization of resistance. If, after more than 
 aixty years of acquiescence by all departments of the national and State governments, 
 in the power of Congress to provide for the punishment of rescuers of escaped slaves, 
 that power is to be disregarded, and all laws which may be passed bj* Congress on 
 tliis subject from henceforth are to be persistently resisted and nullified, the work 
 of revolution should not be begun by the conservators of the public peace." 
 
 4-nd, as a fit and eloquent climax to his decision, he used this expression: 
 
 "As a citizen, I would not deliberately violate the Constitution or the law by in- 
 terference with fugitives from service. But if a weary, frightened slave should ap- 
 peal to me to protect him from his punsuers, it is possible I might momentarilj' forget 
 my allegiance to the law and Constitution, and give him a covert from those who 
 were on his track; there are no doubt many slaveholders who would thus follow the 
 instincts of human sj-mpathy. And if I did it, and was prosecuted, condemned, and 
 imprisoned, and brought by my counsel before this tribunal on a habeas corpus, and 
 was then permitted to pronounce judgment in my own case, I trust I .should have 
 the moral courage to say, before God and the country, as I am now compelled 
 to say, under the solemn duties of a judge, bound by my official oath to sustain the 
 supremacy of the Constitution and the law : 'The prisoner must be remanded.'" 
 
 That- was the decision of our best judge in Ohio, our chief justice. He 
 was a man, Mr, Clerk, of spotless integrity of character — a man who held 
 the balance of justice equipoised between high and low, rich and poor. 
 He was learned, impartial, and decisive for the right. In all respects he 
 was an upright judge. And for deciding thus, mark you ; for hews: an im- 
 pediment in the way of the ambition of our Republican Governor ; for re- 
 fusing to aid these higher-law fanatics of the Reserve; for refusing to serve 
 under Joshua R. Giddings and his crew of the North, who counseled 
 that the United States oflicers should be shot down as pirates — for doing 
 that, the Republican convention struck his name from the roll of judges as 
 unfit to wear the ermine ! He was not pliant to the purposes of higher- 
 law fanaticism ! And my colleague (Mr, Corwin) sustained the conven- 
 tion in this lawless and orderless proceeding, I know that in the cam])aign 
 which followed he preached strong and well against these disorgauizers. 
 
 But I never could understand why he took the Republican stand-point 
 he did, from which to hurl his thunders against the lawless and orderless 
 miscreants of our State. There was one party where he might have done 
 it with consistency. 
 
 When the Republican convention voted, as he confesses they did, and 
 voted unanimously, that the fugitive slave law was " subversive of both the 
 rights of the States and the liberties of the people, and as contrary to the 
 plainest duties of humanity and justice, and abhorrent to the moral sense 
 of the civilized world," and when they demanded its repeal, where, I sub- 
 mit to him, does it place him before the country? He admitted, in reply 
 to my question, that as one of Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet, he approved of that 
 law; he thinks it constitutional ; he will not repeal it. Yet he contented 
 himself with voting against it in committee. He allowed it to pass the 
 convention without dissent. He supported the candidates who were asso- 
 ciated with its most solemn declaration, and who accepted nominations 
 from the same convention. And yet, further, he went forth to battle in the 
 State against the very platform and /or the very candidates thus placed be- 
 fore the people ! Am I not right, then, in saying that there was no other 
 
12 
 
 mode by which he could be consistent and national, except by coming over 
 to the Democratic orcranization, and fighting with them for the integrity of 
 the laws and of the Constitution? 
 
 That there may be no mistake, let me refer to the resolution of the Re- 
 publicans of Ohio : 
 
 " Resolved, That, proclaming our determination rijjidly to respect the consti- 
 tutional obligations imposed upon the State by the Federal compact, we maintain 
 the union of the States, the rights of the States, and the liberties of the people; and, 
 in order to attain these important ends, we demand the repeal of the fugitive slave 
 act of 1850, as it is subversive of both the rights of the States and theliberties of 
 the people, and as contrary to the plainest duties of humanity and justice, and ab- 
 horrent to the moral sense of the civilized world." 
 
 Now, what explanation does the gentleman give us of this remarkable 
 resolution ? He tells us, that there was a clause in it, when before the com- 
 mittee, " that the fugitive slave law was unconstitutional," and that it 
 was stricken out before reported. Ay, sir, that was the trade that was 
 made in the committee. After striking that out, to please the weaker 
 wing — then to please the dominant abolition wing — they go right into the 
 convention and strike down the man who had decided it to be constitu- 
 tional. Is not this a much more emphatic condemnation of that law as 
 unconstitutional, than any resolution ? If I had time, I could weary the 
 House with the evidence from Republican journals and leaders, showing 
 that Judge Swan was thus immolated, and because of that very decision. 
 The selection of his competitor, Judge Gholsou, was not from convenience 
 of locality. It was because he was recommended as a practical Abolition- 
 ist, who had freed his slaves in Mississippi. But it turned out, as might 
 have been expected, that he sold his slaves, pocketed the money, and came 
 to Ohio to play a conspicuous part for the anti-slavery party ! 
 
 Well, Mr. Clerk, I might pursue this matter further. I have heard my 
 friend here (Mr. Corwin) make appeals to the patriotic, the order-loving, 
 tlie law-abiding people of our State and of my own city. The very night 
 after the convention was held, I heard him make a speech in Columbus. I 
 happened to be in the audience among some of the gentlemen from the 
 Reserve while he was, speaking, and many of them thought — and gave ex- 
 pression to their thoughts — that he was making a Democratic speech. 
 (Much laughter.) I heard a gentleman in my neighborhood say, that he 
 believed the pro-slavery men had "yanked Governor Corwin right reound" 
 on this question, and that "his speech was no better (for they sometimes 
 
 do swear out there) than one of your d d Locofoco speeches." (Roars 
 
 of laughter.) 
 
 jSTow, Mr. Clerk, you see the position of this Ohio Republican party. I 
 venture the assertion that if we could poll the members of the Ohio dele- 
 gation on the other side of the House, we should find them, perhaps, 
 equally divided on this momentous question on which the Union of the 
 States i.s founded, and without which it never could have been made. I 
 think that perhaps my friend on the right (Mr. Corwin) would be in a 
 minority, if he were to poll the delegation. He shakes his head. How do 
 you think it stands? You have how many members? 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham. Fifteen. 
 
 Mr, Cox. You have fifteen members of the delegation. Did you ever 
 poll them? No? You do not know how they stand upon this question? 
 Well, my impression is that you are in a minority, and if you do want to 
 hold a class- meeting some time, as you said, and will call in your Demo- 
 cratic brethren, we will take the sense or the census of the meeting. (Great 
 laughter.) 
 
 I was gratified, Mr. Clerk, to hear our friend here give us a little dialectics 
 
13 
 
 on the subject of the higher law. I would have been glad if it had been 
 delivered in Ohio — in Cleveland — before the Ilarper's Ferry foray took 
 place, and before the infamous disunion meeting there the other day. Per- 
 haps he did deliver it. I know he did deliver some portions of it. But 
 Mr. Wendell Phillips, whom he denounces here so eloquently, ip, as I claim, 
 in his logic and in his philosophy, the very exponent of the Republican 
 theory aud dq^-trine ; and I will show you how I will prove it. He holds 
 to the idea of individual sovereignty. 
 A Member. Squatter sovereignty ? 
 
 Mr. Cox. No, sir ; not squatter sovereignty, nor territorial sovereignty, 
 nor congressional sovereignty. He opposes congressional sovt-reignty, as 
 Republicans oppose it, unlei-s it prohibits slavery. He opposes popular 
 sovereignty all the time, as Jiepublicans do; and I will show you wherein 
 he agrees with the Republican party in its philosophy. He says that there 
 can be no civil society unless every individual member of it bows to its au- 
 thority. He says that Governor Wise had no naore right to hang John 
 Brown than John Brown had to hang Governor Wise. In his opinion, the 
 State of Virginia is no more than a piratical crew. He says that there can 
 be no majority, no minority. Anything which comes into opposition with 
 his convictions must go down or go up with those convictions, not except- 
 ing even the Constitution and laws of the country. Herein he is in har- 
 mony with the dominant segment of the Republican party. 
 
 I will go one step farther. That is the doctrine of the New York Tri- 
 bune, and of Governor Chase, applied to the Territories. My distinguished 
 friend (Mr. Corwin) shakes his head. I will tell him where he will find 
 it. He will find it in his message of January, 1856, where he says that the 
 right of property in man cannot be created by any civil government ; that 
 there is no power in any organized community to create the relation of 
 master and slave ; that no majority in a Territory, while such, or when it 
 frames a State constitution, can create the relation of master and slave. 
 He would hold that each individual has the right for himself to decide all 
 these questions pertaining to personal liberty, any law to the contrary not- 
 withstancfmg. Is not this the Republican doctrine? Hence Governor 
 Chase is logical when he says, that Congress may prohibit slavery, but that 
 it has no power to establish it. He would be logical, if he said, tbat the 
 people of a Territory, by a majority, might prohibit slavery, but have no 
 power to establish it. That iCjthe legitimate consequence of this individual 
 sovereignty preached by your ^Vendell Phillipses. If it has not been 
 avowed by my honorable friend, at least he has indorsed the iudorser of it. 
 He says : " Never !" 
 
 Why, in Columbus one year ago — I have the paper here — you paid your 
 attention to my district. There you shook hands with Governor Chase, on 
 Goodale Park platform — did you not? You said that you had voted for 
 him, and had stood by him. Do you not remember how facetiously you 
 remarked on your own countenance? You furnished your complexion 
 to the party, and he the colored principle. (Great lauuhter.) I remember. 
 Don't you remember how cordially you embraced ? You shake your head 
 again. Pardon me. I do not mean a bodily embrace — no, by no manner 
 of means ; but you had a most aft'ectionate political hug before the people 
 of Ohio ! (Renewed laughter.) What, then, did the gentleman indorse in 
 Governor Chase ? He indorsed the individual sovereignty of Wendell 
 Phillips, as applied by Governor Chase to civil society and the institution 
 of slavery in the Territories. It is the same doctrine that these fanatics 
 have. They have a great family of isms. You can tell them all by their 
 hereditary marks of insanity. (Laughter.) 
 
Ptead in the Tribune the enunciation of free-love doctrines. Stephen 
 Pearl Andrews comes out — and mark how his logic suits Mr. "Wendell 
 Phillips, Governor Chase, and the whole Republican party. _ Stephen Pearl 
 Andrews says that he is for individual sovereignty, not in reference to 
 slavery in the Territories, but in reference to — to — the affectional nature. 
 (Laughter.) He is opposed to any affinity with any man or woman who 
 does not come up square to the idea of free-love, unrestrained by the mar- 
 riage relation or civil authority. He says — "What! Bring your lawto 
 bear upon me ; enact that I shall live in a state of marriage under the civil 
 law, against my passional attractions. What ! Compel my sister to keep, 
 with her old husband, against her will ! No, I am for liberty, God and 
 liberty !" — which means the Devil and free lust. So they go on, and so 
 these individual sovereigns run through the catalogue. They are all tied 
 together by the same string of isms which our friend here has so eloquent- 
 ly and inconsistently denounced. 
 
 Now, Mr. Clerk, the time for the Republican party to have denounced 
 these dangerous doctrines, was not after the Harper's Ferry affair had oc- 
 casioned so much dissatisfaction, anxiety, apprehension and dismay in the 
 South. The time to have denounced them was, when Mr. Giddings made 
 liis speech here in favor of servile insurrection. The time to have de- 
 nounced them was, when Helper came along with his bad book; when Gov- 
 ernor Seward said, that there was a higher law than the Constitution which 
 required the extermination of slavery, and "that you and I must do it." 
 Then was the time for denunciation, and not after old Brown, wrought upon 
 by the everlasting rub-a-dub of the abolition driim, got together his recruits, 
 crept into the valley of the Blue Ridge, collected his 810,000 worth of rifles 
 and pikes, and in the night, when no premonition had been given, when all 
 was hushed — 
 
 Mr. Miles. On Sabbath. 
 
 Mr, Cox. Yes, sir; when there was no sound to disturb the quiet but 
 the church-going bell — took possession of an armory with one hundred 
 thousand stand of arms, imprisoned inoffensive citizens, and slayed others. 
 Why did you not denounce these doctrines in the bud? Why did you not 
 stop the bloody instructions of which this was the fruit? Why were they 
 not denounced from the pulpit, forum, and rostrum ? Why not denounced 
 from these seats in Congress ? You come up at this late day and say, " Oh I 
 we do not approve of this thing. The peoj)le of the free States do not ap- 
 prove of it." Neither do they. 
 
 My friend (Mr. Corwin) was right when he said that the people of Ohio, 
 outside of the Western Reserve, are not in favor of insurrection and disso- 
 lution. I think that the Reserve ought to be cut ott' and slid over to Canada, 
 for which it has more affinity than for the United States. (Laughter.) 
 Mr. HuTCHiNS. Why, then, cut off" a part of the Union ? 
 Mr. Cox. I am sure that our people would be glad to exchange those 
 counties of the Western Reserve for Cuba with cheap sugar and molasses. 
 (Great applause and laughter.) My friend (Mr. Corwin) is a correct ex- 
 ponent of the sentiment in Ohio with reference to this insurrection. I am 
 flad he has referred to it in the way he has. I will add my testimony — 
 feeble as it is — to the testimony of the gentleman, to convince the South, 
 that these marauders and murderers have no sympathy from the mass of 
 the people of that State, from which most of them seem to have come, and 
 within whose borders they concocted their fell designs. 
 
 It is due to the gentlemen of the South who have shown so much in- 
 terest, anxiety, and apprehension on this subject, to say that at least one 
 hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and sixty-six Democratic 
 
15 
 
 voters of Ohio put their senl of disapprobation on all the men connected 
 either by sentiment or act with this matter. (Applause in the galleries.) 
 That was the vote last year and if it were properly represented in this Hall, 
 instead of six Democratic members only, we would now have ten. From 
 the sentiment of this year, four of these Republican gentlemen yonder, 
 would be compelled to bid adieu to this scene of congressional life. 
 
 But the distinguished gentleman who preceded me (Mr. Corwik) says, 
 and says truly, that there is no sentiment in the southern part of our State — 
 at least in that part of the State which he and I represent, which would 
 not disapprove, in toto, of the men who have preached and acted out this 
 servile insurrection. There is no sentiment in that part of Ohio which 
 does not at once and forever protest against that horrible specter of histo- 
 ry — a servile insurrection. I may go further and do justice to the Repub- 
 lican vote of Ohio this year. It was one hundred and eighty-four thousand 
 five hundred and two. More than half of that number, sir, in my judg- 
 ment, thoroughly condemn this raid upon Virginia. While I admit the. 
 sentiment is different in the Reserve and at Cleveland; while I admit that 
 the noisy leaders and blatant journalists who undertake -to manage and do 
 control the Republican party in its platform and candidates, are not blessed 
 with the same genuine spirit — I freely and willingly bear my testimony to 
 the public execration which in Ohio has followed the insurgents at Har- 
 per's Ferry, and which will consume their aiders and abettors. Let me go 
 further. 
 
 When you come to the great Northwest you find one million one hun- 
 dred and sixty-two thousand voters in her seven States. This is a hundred 
 thousand more than all the votes in the South, one-third of the whole 
 Union, and three times as many as New England. I believe, sir, that more 
 than one-half of these votes will be cast in 1860 for the Democratic party, 
 for the rights of the States and the permanence of Federal concord. You 
 will find those voters warm in favor of the Union and of the Constitution, 
 which is the only ligament which holds that Union together. You will 
 find this attachment not merely in our party, but among the very men who 
 voted for my friend (Mr. Corwin) and many of the Republicans upon this 
 floor. Look to the great Northwest, and to its power as it is now, and as 
 it will be ! She has a lake and river tonnage of four hundred thousand 
 tons, and five thousand miles of river and lake coast. She has, and must 
 have ever, the Mississippi river as her outlet. Has she nothing at stake ? 
 She will be able to protect herself and the Union besides. In 1860 she 
 will have as many Representatives upon this floor, as the whole South will 
 then have, and three members to one from New England. You will find 
 in her a conservative element which will say to the North, with its extre- 
 mists, and to the South, with its extremists, "thus far shalt thou go, and 
 no further; here shall the waves of disunion be stayed!" You will find 
 in the Northwest a conservative element, which, if we have, as we shall 
 have, the Cincinnati platform unaltered, will rise up to the support of the 
 Democratic party, as the only safe repository of that constitutional power 
 by which this Government is to be carried on. 
 
 It is said by men of science, that the least disturbance of the law of grav- 
 itation in the universe will disturb not only the stars in their courses, but 
 that it will change the position of the lightest flower upon the face of the 
 earth. So it is with respect to that political gravitation by which the 
 States are held in their spheres as they revolve around the Federal center. 
 Not only will the disturbance of our political gravitation, in the least par- 
 ticular, whether by resistance to law or by riotous insurrection, disturb 
 the relation of the various States, but it will disturb that concord of feeling 
 
1C 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 in each individual citizen— w |||i]fflllillll|'i^^^^^ ism— without 
 
 which the Constitution and ||^|^^^1 1 °^- Without" 
 
 fraternity of feeling that Cor i, l! i J^ere wisp of 
 
 straw-a rope of sand. Ther. lllilHillli^^^^^ ,t which can- 
 
 not and will not listen to a dis Wll ^ 
 
 I regret to hear upon this side of the Chamber the dissolution of the 
 Union spoken of as a contingency. I wish to say in behalf of the national 
 Democrats of Ohio, that with them, there is no such word as that rung in 
 our ears by southern gentlemen — " dissolution of the Union per se." We 
 know no dissolution per se. We have no dead or living language to phrase 
 such sentiments. We are for the Constitution and for the Union. We 
 have no language to express anything with respect to breaking those ties, 
 so eloquently depicted by my friend, (Mr. Corwin,) which bind us together. 
 Those ties are as old as the Constitution. I am prepared, as the gentleman 
 from New York (Mr. John Cochrane) said the other day, to sail over 
 many a stormy sea in the protection of that Union and of that Constitution. 
 If I have read aright the history of its formation, its framers Lad troubles 
 and trials far more vexatious and arduous than those we have undergone in 
 preserving it. 
 
 It was as long as from March to September, 1787, before they could 
 agree upon an instrument, and before it could go out to the States for their 
 ratification. They quarreled about the slave trade ; they quarreled about 
 the three-fifths representation of slaves in making up this body ; they quar- 
 relled on a hundred mooted issues, and it was not until such patriotic ap- 
 peals were made, as we have heard here by gentlemen upon this side of 
 the Chamber, that they could come together and agree upon this common 
 Constitution. Too many of their descendants are too quick to listen to the 
 cry of disunion. We of the Northwest have no affinity with any one who 
 utters that cry, whether from the North or South ; whether it comes per 
 se or per anything else. 
 
 I remember an incident that occurred in the late Sepoy rebellion in In- 
 dia — a servile insurrection — which might have found more than its counter- 
 part, if the late aftair at Harper's Ferry had been consummated as it was 
 designed. You remember that Lucknow was besieged for months, by those 
 fiends in human shape, who did what Brown would have had the negroes 
 of Virginia do. Death stared the beleaguered garrison in the face. The 
 engineers even gave up hope. A day, and all would be lost! A fever- 
 stricken Scotch lassie, overcome with fatigue, lay upon the ground, wrapped 
 in her plaid and wrapped in slumber. Suddenly she gave a cry of joy. 
 Her delirium passed away. She exclaimed: "Dinna ye not hear it? 
 Dinna ye not hear it ? Ay, I am no dreamin'. It's the slogan of the High- 
 landers. We're saved ! We're saved!" The young girl had a keen ear 
 for her national music. She was from the Highlands — the home of the 
 MacGregors and the Douglas 1 The duller ear of the Lowlands did not 
 catch the inspiring strain. I think, sir, I may be pardoned for saying that 
 we of the Northwest have a keener sense, a quicker ear for the music of the 
 Union. Through the noise of strife, the clangor of arms, and the cannonade 
 of insurrection, and while other sections have dulled their sense by too 
 frequent allusions and reflections upon disunion, there remains in the North- 
 west the ready love, the unselfish devotion, thfe intelligent fidelity, and the 
 patriotic zeal which is quick to hail the music of the Union as the har- 
 binger of our safety and repose ! (Applause from the galleries.) 
 

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