E 55«8 fe(()8rio)a Boolw3-5i&__ SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWAED, DELIVERED AT ROCHESTER, MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1858. Fet.low-Citizexs : The unmistakable out- break.s of zeal which occur all around me, show that you are earnest men — and such a man am I. Let us therefore, at least for a time, pass by all secondary and collateral questions, >vhether of a personal or of a general nature, and consider the main subject of the present canvass. The Democratic party — or, to speak more accurately — the party which wears that attractive name, is in possession of the Federal Government. The Republicans propose to dis- lodge that .party, and dismiss it from its high trust. The main subject, then, is, whether the Demo- cratic party deserves to retain the confidence of the American People. In attempting to prove it unworthy, I think that I am not actu- ated by prejudices against that party, or by pre- possessions in favor of its adversary 5 for I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their mo- tives than in the policies thev pursue. Our country is a theatre, which exhibits, in full operation, two radically different political systems ; the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, the other on the basis of vol- SHitary labor of freemen. The laborers who are enslaved are all ne- groes, or persons more or less purely of Afri- can derivation. But this is only accidental. The principle of the system is, "that labor in every society, by whomsoever performed, is necessarily unintellectual, grovelling, and base ; and that the laborer, equally for his own good and for the welfare of the State, ought to be en- slaved. The white laboring man, whether na- tive or foreigner, is not enslaved, only because he cannot, as yet, be reduced to bondage. You need not be told now that the slave sys- tem is the older of the two, and that once it wa.* universal. The emancipation of our own ancestors, Cau- casians and Europeans as they were, hardly dates beyond a period of five hundred years. The great melioration of human society which modern times exhibit, is mainly due to the incomplete substitution of the system of voluntary labor for the old one of servile labor, which has already taken place. This African slave system is one which, in its origin and in its growth, has been al- together foi-eign from the habits of the races which colonized these States, and established civiliza- tion here. It was introduced on this new continent as an engine of conquest, and for the establish- ment of monarchical power, by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and was rapidly extend- ed by them all over South America, Central America, Louisiana, and Mexico. Its legiti- mate fruits are seen in the poverty, imbecility, and anarchy, which now pervade all Portu guese and Spanish America. The free-labor system is of German extraction, and it was established in our country by emigrants from Sweden, Holland, Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland. We justly ascribe to its influences the strength, wealth, greatness, intelligence, and freedom, which the whole American people now enjoy. One of the chief elements of the value of human life is freedom in the pursuit of happiness. The slave system is not only intolerant, unjust, and inhuman, toward the laborer, whom, only be- cause he is a laborer, it loads down with chains and converts into merchandise, but is scarcely less severe upon the freeman, to whom, only be- cause he is a laborer from necessity, it denies fa- cilities for employment, and whom it expels from the community because it cannot enslave and con- vert him into merchandise also, it is necessarily improvident and ruinous, because, as a general truth, communities prosper and ilourish or droop and decline in just the degree that they practice or neglect to practice the primary duties ofjus- tice and humanity. The tree-labor system con- forms to the divine law of equality, which is written in the hearts and consciences of men, and therefore is always and everywhere benef- icent. The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion, and watchfulness. It de- bases those whose toil alone can produce wealth and resources for defence, to the lowest degree of which human nature is capable, to guard against mutiny and insurrection, and thiis wastes energies which otherwise might be employed in national development and aggrandizement. The free-labor system educates all alike, and, by opening all the helds of industrial employ- ment, and all the depaiiments of authority, to the unchecked and equal rivalry of all classes of men, at once secures universal contentment, and brings into the highest possible activity all the physical, moral, and social energies of the whole State. In States where the slave system prevails, the masters, directly or indirectly, se- cure all political power, and constitute a ruling aristocracy. In States where the free-labor system prevails, universal suffrage necessarily obtains, and the State inevitably becomes, soon- er or later, a republic or democracy. Russia yet maintains slavery, and is a despot- ism. Most of the other European States have abolished slavery, and adopted the system of free labor. It was the antagonistic political tend- encies of the two systems which the first Napo- leon was contemplating when he predicted that Europe would ultimately be either all Cossack or all Uepublican. Never did human sagacity utter a more pregnant truth. The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous. But they are more than incongruous — they are incom- patible. They never have permanently existed together in one country, and they nuver can. It would be easy to demonstrate "this impossi- bility, from the irreconcilable contrast between their great principles and characteristics. But the experience of mankind has conclusively es- tablished it. Slavery, as I have already inti- mated, existed in every State in Europe. Free labor has supplanted it everywhere except in Russia and Turkey. State necessities, developed in modern times, are now obliging even those two nations to encourage and employ free labor; and already, despotic as they are, we find them engaged in abolishing slavery. In the United States, Slavery came into collision with free la- bor at the close of the last century, and fell be- fore it in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but triumphed over it efl'ect- ually, and excluded it, for a period yet undeter- mined, from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Geor- gia. Indeed, so iacompatible are tbo two sys- terns, that every new State which is organized within our ever-extending domain ma^kes its firs'- political acta choice of the one and an ex- clusion of the other, even at the cost of civil war if necessary. The slave States, without law at the last national election, successfuUv forbade within their own limits, even the castiiicr of votes for a candidate for President of the United States supposed to be favorable to the establish- ment of the free-labor system in new States. Hitherto, the two systems have existed indif- ferent States, but side by side witliin the Amer- ican Union. This has happened because the Union is a confederation of States. But in an- other aspect the United States constitute only one nation. Increase of population, which is filling the States out to their verv borders, to- gether with a new and extended net-work of railroads and other avenues, and an internal commerce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly bringing the States into a higher and more perfect social unity or consolidation. Thus these antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and collision re- sults. Shall I tell you what this collision means ? They who think that it is accidental, unneces- sary, the work of interested or fanatical agita- tors, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible contlict be- tween opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slavc- holding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Caro- lina and the sugar plantations of Lotiisiaua will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charles- ton and New Orleans become marts for legiti- matj merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrendered by their farm- ers to slave culture and to the productitm of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more markets for trade in the bodies aud souls of men. It is the fiiilure to apprehend this great truth that induces so many unsuccessful attempts at final compromise between the slave and free States, and it is the existence of this great iact that renders all such pretended com- promises, when made, vain and ephemeral. Startling as this saying may appear to you, fel- low-citizens, it is by no means an original or even a modern one. Our forefathers knew it to be true, and unanimously actecl upon it when they framed the Constitution of the Uni- ted States. They regarded the existence of the servile system in so many of the States with sorrow and shame, which they openly confessed, and they looked upon the collision between them, which was then just revealing itself, and which we are now accustomed to deplore, with favor and hope. They knew that either the one or the other system must exclusively pre^■all. Unlike too many of those who in modern time iavoke their aiUhority, they had a choice 3 between the two. They preferred the system of free labor, and they determined to organize the Government, and so to direct its activity, that that system should surely and certainly prevail. For this purpose, and no other, they based the whole structure of CTuverumeat broadly on the principle that all men are created equal, and iherei'ore free — little dreaming that, within the short period of one hundred years, their de- scendants would bear to be told by any orator, however popular, that the utterance of that principle was merely a rhetorical rhapsody ; or by any judge, however venerated, that it v.-as attended by mental reservations, which rendered it hypocritical and false. By the ordinance of 1787 they dedicated all of the national domain not yet polluted by Slavery to free labor imme- diately, thenceforth and forever, while by the new Constitution and laws they invited foreign free labor from all lands under the sun, and in- terdicted the importation of African slave labor, at all times, in all places, and under all ciream- sta.nces whatsoever. It is true that they neces- sarily and wisely modified this policy of Free- dom, by leaving it to the several States, affect- ed as they were by differing circumstances, to abulish Slavery in their own way and at their own pleasure, instead of confiding that dutv to Congress, and that they secured to the slave States, while yet retaining the system of Slavery, a tlu'ee-dfths representation of slaves in the Fed- eral Government, until they should find them- ' selves able to relinquish it with safety. But the very nature of these modifications fortifies my ■ position that the fathers knew that the two sys- tems could not endure within the Union, arid expected that within a short period Slavery would disappear forever. Moreover, in order that these modifications might not altogether defeat their grand design of a Republic main- taining universal equality, they provided that two-thirds of the States might amend the Con- stitution. It remains to say on this point only one word, to guard against misapprehension. If these States are to again become universally slave- holding, I do not pretend to say with what vio- lations of the Constitution that end shall be ac- complished. On the other hand, while I do confidently believe and hope that my country will yet become a land of universal Freedom, I do not expect that it will be made so otherwise than through the actifin of tlie several States co-operating with the Federal (Jovernment, and all acting in strict conformity with their respect- ive Constitutions. The strife and contentions concerning Sla- very, which gently-disposed persons so haliitu- aliy deprecate, are nothing more than the ripeii^ ing of the conflict which the fathers themseh'es not only thus regarded with favor, but uliich they may be said to have instituted. it is not to be denied, however, that thus fai the course of that contest has not been accoril- ing 10 their humane uuticipatious and wishu^.' In the field of Federal politics. Slavery, deri- ving unlooked-for advantages from commercial changes, and energies unforeseen from the facilities of combination between members of the slaveholding class and between that class and other property classes, early rallied, and has at length made a stand, not merely to re- tain its original defensive position, but to extend its sway throughout the whole Unioii. It is certain that the slaveholding class of American citizens indulge this high ambition, and that they derive encouragement for it from the rapid and effective political successes which they have already obtained. The plan of operation is this : By continued appliances of patronage, and threats of disunion, liiey will keep a majority favorable to these designs in the Senate, where each State has an equal representation. Through that majority they will defeat, as they best can, the admission of free States, and secure the admission of slave States. Under the protec- tion of the Judiciary they will, on the principle of the Dred Scott case, carry Slavery into all the Territories of the United States, now existing and hereafter to be organized. By the action of the President and the Senate, using the treaty-making power, they will annex foreign slaveholding States. Inafavorable conjuncture they will induce Congress to repeal the act of 1808, which prohibits the foreign slave trade, and so they will import from Africa, at the cost of only $20 a head, slaves enough to fill up the interior of the continent. Thus relatively in- creasing the number of slave States, they will allow no amendment to the Constitution preju- dicial to their interest; and so, having perma- nently established their power, they expect the Federal Judiciary to nullify all" State laws which shall interfere with internal or foreign commerce in slaves. When the free States shall be sufliciently demoralized to tolerate these designs, they reasonably conclude that Slavery will be accepted by those States themselves. I shall not stop to show how speedy or how com- plete would be the ruin which the accomplish- ment of these slaveholding schemes would bring upon the country. For one, I should not remain in the country to test the sad experi- ment. Having spent my manhood, though not my whole life, in a free State, no aristocracy of any kind, much less an aristocracy of slavehold- ers, shall ever make the laws of the land in which I shall be content to live. Having seen the society aroune well understood. I do not charge that the Democratic candidates for public oflice now before the people are pledged, much less that the Democratic masses who support them really adopt those atrocious and dangerous de- signs. Candidates may, and generally do, mean to act justly, wisely, and patriotically, when they shall be elected ; but they become the minisiers and servants, not the dictators, of the power which elects them. The policy which a party shall pursue at a future period is only gradually developed, depending on the occurrence of events never fully foreknown. The motives of men, whether acting as electors or in any other capacity, are generally pure. Nevertheless, it is not more true that " Hell is ])aved with good intentions," than it is that (Mrth is covered with wrecks resulting from in- nocent and amiable motives. The very constitution of the Democratic party commits it to execute all the designs of the slaveholders, whatever they may be. It is not a party of the whole Union, of all the free States and of all the slave States ; nor yet is it a party of the free States in the North and in the North- west ; but it is a sectional and h)cal pai'ty, having jiracticully its seat within the slave States, and counting its constituency chiefly and almost ex- clusively there. Of all its representatives in Con- gress and in the Electoral Colleges, two-thirds unilbrmly come from these States. Its great clement of strength lies in the vote of the slave- holders, augmented by the representation of three-fifths of the slaves. Deprive the Demo- cratic party of this strength, and it would be a hel])less and hopeless minority, incapable of continued organization. The Democratic party, being thus local and sectional, acquires new fc'lrength from the admission of every new slave State, and loses relatively by the admission of every new fre(^ State into the Union. A party is in one sense a joint stock associa- tion, in which those who contribute most direct the action and management of the concern. The slaveholders contributing in an overwhelm- ing proportion to the cajiital strength of the Democratic party, they necessarily dictate and prescribe its policy. The inevitable caucus system enables them to do so with a show of fairness and justice. If it were possible to con- cbive for a moment that the Democratic party should disobey the behests of the slaveholders \\e should then see a withdrawal of the slave- holders, which would leave the party to perish. The portion of the party which is found in the free States is a mere appendage, convenient to modify its sectional character, without impair- ing its sectional constitution, and is less ett'ect- i\e in regulating its movement than the nebu- lous tail of the comet is in determining the ap- pointed though ap])arently eccentric course of the fiery sphere from which it emanates. To expect the Democratic party to resist Sla- very, and favor Freedom, is as unreasonable as to look for Protestant missionaries to the Cath- olic Propaganda of Rome. The history of the Democratic party commits it to the policy of Slavery. It has been the Democratic party, and no other agency, which has carried that pol- icy up to its present alarming culmination. Without stopping to ascertain, criticallv, the or- igin of the present Democratic partv, we may concede its claim to date from the era of good feeling which occurred under the Administra- tion of President ^lonroe. At that time in this State, and about that time in many others of the free States, the Democratic party deliberate- ly disfranchised the free colored or African cit- izen, and it has pertinaciously continued this disfranchisement ever since. This was an ef- fective aid to Slavery ; for while the slaveholder votes for his slaves against Freedom, the freed slave in the free States is prohibited from vo- ting- against Slavery. In 1824, the Democracy resisted the election of John Quincy Adams — himself before that timc! an acceptable Democrat — and in 1828 it expelled him fioin the Presidency, and put a slaveholder in his place, although the oflice had been filled by slaveholders thirtj'-two out of forty years. In 18of), Martin Van Buren — the first non- slaveholding citizen of a free State to whose election the Democratic party ever consented — signalized his inauguration into the Presidency by a gratuitous announcement, that under no circumstances would he ever approve a bill for tho abolition of Slavery in the District of Co- lumbia. From 1838 to 1844, the subject of abolishing Slavery in the District of Columbia and in the national dock yards and arsenals was brought before Congress by repeated popular appeals. The Dcn'iocratic party thereupon promptly denied the right of petition, and ef- fectually suppressed the freedom of speech in Congress, so far as the institution of Slavery was concerned. From 1840 to 184."), good and wise nien cotin- selled that Texas should remain outside of the Union until she should consent to relinquish her self-instituted Slavery ; but the Democratic ])arty precipitated her admission into the Un- ion, "not only without that condition, but even with a covenant that the State might be divided and reorganized so as to constitute four slave States, instead of one. In 1846, when the United States became in- volved in a war with Mexico, and it was appa- rent that the struggle would end in the dismem- berment of that Republic, which was a nou- slaveholding Power, the Democratic party re- jected a declaration that Slaver}' should not be established within the territory to be acquired. "When, in I80O, Governments were to be insti- tuted in the Territories of California and New Mexico, the fruits of that war, the Democratic party refused to admit New Mexico as a free State, and only consented to admit California as a free Slate on the condition, as it has since explained the transaction, of leaving all of New Mexico and Utah open to Slavery, to which was also added the concession of perpetual Slavery in the District of Columbia, and the passage of an unconstitutional, cruel, and humiliating law, for the recapture of fugitive slaves, with a fur- ther stipulation that the subject of Slavery should never again be agitated in either chamber of Congress. When, in 1854, the slaveholders were contentedly reposing on these great ad- vantages, then so recently won, the Democratic party unnecessarily, ofticiously, and with super- serviceable liberality, awaked them from their slumber, to offer and force on their acceptance the abrogation of the law which declared that neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude should i ever exist within that part of the ancient terri- 1 tory of Louisiana which lay outside of the | State of Missouri, and north of the parallel of | .S6° 30^ of north latitude — a law which, with | the exception of one other, was the only statute j of Freedom then remaining in the federal code, i In 185(), when the people of Kansas had or- 1 ganized a new State within the region thus ! abandoned to Slavery, and applied to be ad- | mitted as a free State"into the Union, the Dem- ! ocratic party contemptuously rejected their pe- 1 tition, and drove them, with menaces and in- i timidations, from the Halls of Congress, and j armed the President with military power to en- ! force their submission to a slave code, estab- i lished over them by fraud and usurpation. At every subsequent stage of the long contest which has since raged in Kansas, the Democratic party has lent its sympathies, its aid, and all the powers of the Government which it con- trolled, to enforce Slavery upon that unwilling and injured people. And now, even at this day, while it mocks us with the assurance that Kansas is free, the Democratic partv keeps the State excluded from her just and proper place in the Union, under the hope that she may be draponed into th(; acceptance of Slavery. The Democratic party finally has procured from a Supreme Judiciary, fixed in its inter- est, a decree that Slavery exists by force of the Constitution in every Territory of the United States, paramount to all legislative authority either within the Territory or residing in Con- gress. Such is the Democratic party. It has no pol- icy, State or Federal, for tiuaace, or trade or manufacture, or commerce, or education, or in- ternal improvements, or for the protection or even the security of civil or religious liberty. It is positive and uncompromising in the inter- est of Slavery — negative, compromising, and vacillating, in regard to everything else. It boasts its love of equality, and wastes its strength and even its life in fortifying the only aristoc- racy known in the land. It professes fraterni- ty, and, so often as Slavery requires, allies itself with proscription. It magnifies itself for conquests in foreign lands, but it sends the na- tional eagle forth always with chains, and not the olive branch, in his fangs. This dark record shows you, fellow-citizens, what I was unwilling to announce at an earlier stage of this argument, that of the whole nefa- rious schedule of slaveholding designs which I have submitted to you, the Democratic party has left only one yet to be consummated — 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 policv of fortifv- ing and extending Slavery, and has excused them on entirely different and more plausible 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 abhorrence of Slavery, and an inborn and inhering love of Freedom, in the human heart, which render palliation of such gross misconduct indispensable. It dis- franchised 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 amal- gamation with his wronged and despised race. The Democratic party condemned and deposed .lohn Quincy Adams because he expended $12,000,000 a vear, while it justifies his favored successor in spending $70,000,000, $80,000,000, and even $100,000,000, 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 Consti- tuti(m expressly confers upon Congress sover- eign legislative power in that District, and al- though the Democratic partv 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 Repre- sentatives, 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 ^luve law and the Mies'ouri Com- promise prohibition of Slavery in Kansas, not tu open the new Territories to Slavery, but to try therein the new and fuscinating theories of Non-intervention and Popular Sovereignty; and liually 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 with- out 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 ttie 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 states- man or legislator, from Van Buren to Walker, who either timidly or cautiously like them, or bold- ly and defiantly like Douglas, ever refused to execute a behest of the slaveholders, and was not therefor, and for no other cause, immedi- ately 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 Free- dom to rush to the rescue of the Constitution, aud 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 objec- tions 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, j)rogrammes, and platforms, but by the public exigencies, and the temper of the people when they call it into activity. Subser- viency 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 re- rources for its ever-renewing strength and con- stant invigoration. Others cannot support the Republican party, be- cause 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 too conservative for uthci-s. As if any party ever iurusaw sy cleiii-ly the course of future events as to plan a univer- sal scheme for future action, adapted to all pos- sible emergencies. Who would ever have join- ed even the V\'hig party of the Revolution, if it had been obliged to answer, in 1775, whether it would declare for Independence in 177(i, 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. Thev will oblige the Republican party to act as the public welfare and the interests of justice aud humanity shall require, through all the stages of its career, whether of trial or triumph. Others will uot venture an eliurt, 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 composed ? This is a Constitution of Freedom. It is being converted into a Constitution of Slavery. It is a repub- lican Constitution. It is being made an aristocratic one. Others wish to wait until some collateral questions concerning temper- ance or the exercise of the elective franchise are properly settled. Let me ask all such per- sons, 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. Final- ly, we are told by faint-hearted men that they despond : the Democratic party, they say, is un- conquerable, 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 the en- ergies of the Democratic party, which is identi- cal with the Slave Power. I do ample prestige to its traditional popularity. I know, further — few, I think, know better than I — the difHculties and disadvantages of organizing a new political force like the Republican party, and the obsta- cles it must encounter in laboring without pres- tige and without patronage. But, notwithstand- ing all this, I know that the Democratic party must go down, and the Republican party must rise into its place. The Democratic party de- rived its strength originally from its adoption of the principles of equal and exact justice to all men. So long as it practiced this principle faith- fuUv, it was invulnerable. It became vulnerable when it renounced the principle, and since that time it has maintained itself, not by virtue of iUi own .Btryngtb, or eveti of its traditiouiil mer* its, but because there as j'ct 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 principle which the Democratic party had surrendered. At last, the Republican party had 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 ju«t failed to secure comj)lete and triumphant victory. In this, its second campaign, it has already won advanta- ges 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 scof- fers, 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 gener- ous 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 Sena- tors and a hundred Representatives proclaim boldly in Congress to-day sentiments and opin- ions and principles of Freedom which hardly so many men even in this free State dared to utter in their own homes twenty years ago. While the Government of the United States, under the con- duct of the Democratic party, has been all that time sui-rendering one plain and castle after another to Slavery, the people of the United States have been no less steadily and persever- ingly gathering together the forces with which to recover back again all the fields and all the castles which have been lost, and to confound and overthrow, by one decisive blow, the be- ti-avers of the Cojistitution and Freedom for- WASHINGTON, D. C. BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 1858. JUN 5 \9\1