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 Copy 1 
 
NEW JERSEY FOR THE UNION. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. JAMES I. SCOVEL, 
 
 SENATOR FROM CAMDEN, 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 Bill Prohibiting the Enlistment of Negro Troops in New Jersey, 
 
 Uiiiier a Penalty of $500, or Imprisonvient for Five Tears. 
 
 DELIVERED MARCH IG, 1804. 
 
 '\m^ 
 
 TRENTON: 
 
 MURPHY & BECHTEL, PRINTERS, OPPOSITE THE CITY HALL,. 
 
 1864. 
 
^, t)^ 
 
 <J 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 
 THIS SPEECH TO THE PATRIOTIC 
 
 PKESIDENT OF A FREE PEOPLE, OP WHOM 
 
 IT HAS BEEN SAID, WITH JUSTNESS AND TRUTH : " IP 
 
 (5E0RGE WASHINGTON MADE THE REPUBLIC, 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAVED IT.'' 
 
 J. M. S. 
 
NEW JERSEY FOR THE DNION. 
 
 Mr. President : — A year ago I stood in the lower 
 House of this Legislature, in opposition to the peace 
 resolutions offered and advocated by a majority of the 
 Senators upon this floor. These resolutions sought to 
 purchase peace at the price of our national honor. 
 These resolutions, about which the dominant party in 
 the Senate have observed a silence at once ominous and 
 remarkable, united the morality of Louis J^apoleon with 
 the language of Machiavelli. They trifled with the con- 
 science of the State as the rebellion has sought to trifle 
 with the conscience of the nation ; for when Chief Jus- 
 tice Taney announced from the highest court in the land 
 that the everlastino^ curse of human bondage was the 
 supreme law, before which absolute justice must bend 
 and break, then the great popular heart stirred to its 
 depth, and conscience, with so delicate a voice that it is 
 often stifled, spoke in so clear a tone that its accents 
 could neither be mistaken nor its mandates disobeyed. 
 
 Some of us came up slowly to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty. Mental servitude had become an 
 attribute of the North as much as bodily servitude was 
 the institution of the South, till, with as much wit as 
 truth, a son of New England said, replying to Daniel 
 Webster, " Yes, there is no North ; it is the South all the 
 way up to Canada /" 
 
 Soon it permeated the minds of the people that when 
 a Chief Justice said, in the latitude of "Washington city, 
 "that a negro had no rights which a white man was 
 bound to respect," the true intent and meaning of such 
 language in the atmosi»here of Charleston was, that " no 
 ISTorthern mudsill has any riij^ht which a Southern ffen- 
 tleman is bound to respect." Then the shotted guns of 
 Sumter opened, while manhood and moral courage took 
 
the place in the mind and heart of the American people, 
 of concession and pusillanimity. 
 
 We have refused allegiance to our principles : we 
 have refused to pay the price of national honor and vir- 
 tue ; and we are sued in the courts of destiny, and the 
 case is this day on trial. And I need not speak of the 
 eagerness with which the eyes of Europe are turned 
 towards America — that land which a distinguished Eng- 
 lishman says "privilege every morning, witli blatant 
 breath, begins to curse because it dares to be prosperous 
 and happy without a monarchy, without an aristocracy, 
 and without a priesthood, who are the licensed venders 
 of salvation wrought by love." 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I confess the hesitation with which I ap- 
 proach the discussion of this bill, which is now before 
 the Senate. My only desire is to proclaim those senti- 
 ments of future policy which I believe are intimately 
 connected with the future glory of our country. And, 
 Sir, I trust that I belong to that class who believe the 
 greatest glory of a free man is to be a good citizen. 
 And a good citizen prefers liberty to luxury, and honor 
 to profit. He holds that, next to dying for one's country, 
 the greatest glory is to live for her interest and her 
 honor. I have no aspirations, no ambitions, which do 
 not go forward in longing for that peace which shall 
 dawn upon the end of this terrible and righteous war, a 
 peace which, in the language of Abraham Lincoln, " I 
 hope may come soon, and when it does come will come 
 to stay, and will be worth the keeping." 
 
 Whenever I look upon that flag. Sir, with every im- 
 pulse of my heart there rises a sentiment of afliection 
 and of honor. I know that God has given the country 
 to men who can defend it, and to women who, in its ser- 
 vice, consent to the sacrifice of their husbands, their 
 brothers and their sons. And the man, whoever he is, 
 and whatever place he may fill, who will not protect and 
 defend the laud that gave him birth, is a dastard and a 
 coward. 
 
 The bill before the Senate, Mr. President, is entitled 
 ^' An act to regulate the appropriation of moneys raised 
 
5 
 
 by the authority of this State, for war purposes." I 
 frankly confess that I ditfer from my honorable friend, 
 the Senator from Union (Mr. Jenkins), in the views he 
 entertains for the causes and of the conduct of the war. 
 General sagacity and uprightness cannot contend against 
 the prejudices among which a man is born, which are 
 the breath of liis nostrils to him. As God has no attri- 
 bute which sides with the oppressor, so man ennobles 
 himself by becoming the advocate of the oppressed. 
 Bishop Hopkins may thunder in a small way to a very 
 select audience that slavery is a divine institution, and 
 compel his auditors to bow down to the narrowest in- 
 terpretation of individual texts. But the heart relying 
 on the spirit of Scripture still whispers what every grand 
 thinker the world has ever produced boldly proclaims — 
 that all men everywhere ought to be free. 
 
 You cannot make science utter a lie in the face of the 
 universe, and declare that the sun moves round the 
 earth and the earth stands still. The terrors of the In- 
 quisition are nothing, and (Tallilio whispers '■'■ JS jmv si 
 rmwrc." It docs move, ihungJi,. 
 
 Aye ! And New Jersey moves. Only a year ago we 
 were threatened with revolution in the North if a single 
 soldier who was not a white citizen should enlist and 
 fight against "slavery in arms." And now a single 
 township in the county of Warren has paid ten thou- 
 sand dollars for bounties to colored soldiers ; and not 
 less than three thousand black soldiers have left New 
 Jersey to revenge their slaughtered brothers at Wagner, 
 Port Hudson and at Vicksburg. Aye ! Even New Jer- 
 sey moves. 
 
 Never again will an insolent n\ajority on bended knees 
 supplicate for peace, and herald to all the world that this 
 war for law, for liberty and for humanity is " causeless 
 in its origin, and dangerous to the liberties of the peo- 
 ple."* Never again will men oft'er upon the floor of this 
 Senate to join any of the sister States of the Unioii to 
 carry into practical effect a war upon the Federal Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 * Pcaco Rosolution No. ;t. 
 
8o wide spread and so thorougli was the delusion in 
 this re2;ard in the reninaut of the Democratic party, that 
 they unconsciously became the apologists and defenders 
 of human bondage and its villainies. 
 
 We tind the present Executive of this State declaring, 
 in his inaugural address, (page 14, 1863): "We are told 
 that the belief that slavery is the cause of the war, and 
 that the war can never cease and the life of the nation 
 be preserved until slavery be abolished, has lead to a de- 
 parture from the original purpose of the war. This is 
 the radical error of the Emancipationists. Slaceri/ is no more 
 the cause of the var than gold is the cause of robbery and 
 murder.'' 
 
 Compare this with the avowal of Alexander H. Ste- 
 phens, the associate of Jefierson Davis, in a speech de- 
 livered in Savannah, on the 21st of March, 1861. He 
 says : " The new Constitution has put to rest forever all 
 the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institu- 
 tions. African, slavery., as it exists among 2is, is the prop(r 
 status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE LATE RUPTURE AND THE 
 
 PRESENT REVOLUTION." Between such eminent advo- 
 cates of slavery as the Governor of New Jersey and the 
 Vice President of a moribund Confederacy, who shall 
 decide ? 
 
 Outside of this State, and excepting the city of New 
 York, I do not know where it is seriously contended 
 that "abolitionism and secessionism " w^ere the cause of 
 the war. Yet such was the opinion deliberately ex- 
 pressed by Joel Parker in his inaugural address in 1863, 
 and boldly avowed in his annual message of January 
 12th, 1864. He thinks, too, that if the policy of eman- 
 cipation had not been inaugurated, the nu^ss of the peo- 
 ple in some of the Southern States would have " sup- 
 planted their rulers and returned to their allegiance." 
 A greater fallacy was never uttered. Let Maryland and 
 Missouri and Arkansas answer, where you cannot tind 
 any fugitive slaves, but where fugitive masters aliound. 
 There, where wisdom has been born of this terrible con- 
 test, they hold that slavery, like Achan's wedge of gold, 
 
i^ an accursed thing, rind they o-Jadly tear down the rehcl 
 banner and run up "our beautiful flag." 
 
 But in Kentucky, where neutrality prevailed, — and 
 neutrality in a struggle between freedom and barbarism 
 is a monstrosity, — where neutrality prevailed, Ave now 
 find Governor Bramlette threatening to resist the enlist- 
 ment of negroes as soldiers. Kentucky answers New 
 Jersey wdiile South Carolina applauds ! 
 
 And I venture the assertion that outside the rebel 
 lines there is no Legislature that dares to defy the 
 Federal Government by passing so iniquitous a measure 
 as the one under consideration, unless it be the Legisla- 
 ture of the State of New Jersey. No man wdiose heart 
 is with his country can read the bill without condemning 
 it. It provides, "That from and after the passage of the 
 act it shall not be lawful for any part of the moneys now 
 raised, or which may be hereafter raised for w-ar pur- 
 poses, to be used for the employment of negroes as sol- 
 diers ; and any one oftlsnding against the provisions of 
 this act shall, for each and every oftence, upon convic- 
 tion, be subject to a fine of not less than five hundred 
 dollars, and imprisonment for a term of not less than 
 five years." 
 
 And I would be glad to know whether this bill meets 
 the approval of the Governoi- of New Jersey. When 
 such a measure was proposed for the county of Union, 
 I said that the policy of negro enlistment under the 
 laws of the United States had met the sanction of the 
 Executive of this State. I was glad to credit him with 
 sustaining the Government after his own tashion. I ap- 
 preciate the social virtues of Joel Parker, but I am not 
 bound to admire that easy political virtue which writes a 
 sympathizing letter to a Vallandigham meeting, declares 
 against the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and 
 says, in the face of a popular majority of nearly two 
 hundred thousand, that the Proclamation of Knuuicipa- 
 tion is a mistake, intimates that it is unconstitutional, 
 and ends by declaring it an " obstacle in the w\ay of 
 peace." Sir! We have had too much of this style of 
 supporting the CJovernment. 
 
New Jersey, to-day, is full of Union men with Con- 
 federate principles. Like the Cavaliers in the days of 
 the Pretender, they hold their wine glasses ahove their 
 water glasses, and drink "to the King" — over the water. 
 They say, (these half-hearted Union men), 
 
 '■ God bless the King, God bless the faith's defender. 
 The Devil take the Pope and the Pretender; 
 But who the Pretender is, and who King, — 
 God bless us all, — is quite another tiling." 
 
 I charge now, as I have charged before, that the Gov- 
 ernor of New Jersey was elected in the interest of slavery, 
 and that Democracy, as officered and manned in New 
 Jersey, is in sympathy with treason and rebellion. 
 
 If you decorate your Senate Chamber with an Ameri- 
 can flag, a State flag must be elevated beside it. The 
 doctrine of State rights, a political falsehood, and a de- 
 lusion, is boldly proclaimed as part of the new gospel of 
 peace. Three weeks since, the Senator from Bergen 
 (Mr. Holsman) declared himself in favor of a vigorous 
 prosecution of the war, and I congratulated the Senate 
 that since he was in favor, now, of a war with white 
 men, in the next year he would be eloquently for carry- 
 ing the war into Africa, ivith Africans. But, Sir, the 
 Peace Committee met at the New York Hotel, on the 
 22d day of February, desecrating the anniversary day 
 that gave birth to George Washington, and since then 
 the Senator from Bergen, in almost the identical lan- 
 guage of the pronunciamento of the Rebel Congress, 
 declares that he is now, and has been since the flring 
 upon Fort Sumter, against the war. My accusation 
 against "Democracy as it is," hath this extent. It is 
 without honest purpose or principle. If it pretends to 
 be for the war in Pennsylvania, it is for peace in New 
 Jersey. And when General Lee was marching through 
 the beautiful and fertile valley of the Cumberland up to 
 Harrisburg, the Democratic party was joyously assem- 
 bling in the State Capital of Pennsylvania, to nominate 
 George II. Woodward, who said " it was a sin to think 
 against slavery," and that the time must come when the 
 South could fall back upon her natural rights, and use 
 
9 
 
 all the means she possessed, or could command, in de- 
 fence of her soil. No wonder that General Lee hastened 
 to ratify a nomination so opportunely made ! No won- 
 der a single voice was not raised in that convention 
 which found the latitude of Ilarrishurg suggestive of 
 shot and shell. And it is not singular that a retired 
 Major General, in the U. S. Army, who would make a 
 "capital engineer for a stationary power," wrote his dis- 
 tinguished considerations on the eve of a most signifi- 
 cant election, to Mr. Woodward, who believed that 
 " slavery was a blessing !" 
 
 And, while this subject is in my memory, let me say 
 that the saddest sight that my eyes ever beheld was the 
 sight of the weary thousands who thronged the bridge 
 across the Susquehanna, on the 19th day of June, in the 
 year of grace 1863; old men, tender women and help- 
 less children, for the first time in their lives aliens to 
 their hearths and homesteads, they had gathered together 
 their household Gods, and sought shelter from the 
 Goths and Vandals of barbarism — sought shelter and 
 protection on the peaceful banks of the Juniata. The 
 recollections of these scenes can never be effaced, and 
 till they have passed from my mind, let no more ask me 
 to pause in my efforts to point to my countrymen the 
 perils which threaten the republic. One of the finest 
 passages in Roman history tells us that after the battle 
 of Cannae, when disaster and defeat had followed the 
 Roman general, the Senate went beyond the walls of 
 the imperial city to thank their general that he had not 
 despaired of the republic. 
 
 To that man who would stop the victorious banners 
 of the armies of the Union, by cavilling at the procla- 
 mation of emancipation, I would answer that it was six 
 months after the head of the nation had invoked the 
 ^'considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
 favor of Almighty God," on that proclamation, before — 
 standing by the unnumbered graves of our dead in the 
 nation's cemetery — we could say, " of the two great 
 efforts to enslave the English race in body and mind, 
 
10 
 
 the first met its grave at Marston Moor, the second at 
 Gettyshurg." 
 
 But to return to the political decline and fall of New 
 Jersey. In 1849 both Houses of this Legislature, by 
 joint resolution, declared slavery to be an evil, and in- 
 structed our Senators and Representatives in Congress 
 to vote against the extension of human bondage in the 
 Territories. (Pamp. Laws, p. 334, 1849.) But soon the 
 leading politicians who represented the dominant power 
 became — by social ties, or by the powerful intluence of 
 interest — wedded to the cause of slavery. New Jersey 
 became pro-slavery in sentiment, or at least, the domi- 
 nant party were for slavery rather than for the Union. 
 
 It sent Senators to Congress who defended the institu- 
 tion. It sent members to the lower House who wor- 
 shipped at the shrine of Jefferson Davis — then, as now, 
 the leading spirit of Southern aggression. 
 
 A monster monopoly, which subsidized newspapers, 
 and treated the consciences of legislators as a merchant- 
 able article — a corrupt corporation, which may yet learn 
 that " corruption win not more than honesty " — aided 
 and abetted this spirit of pro-slavery fanaticism. A man 
 who was for liberty, and against the despotism of men 
 who called themselves the " master race," was ostracised 
 in private and in public life. 
 
 It was during the time when .James Buchanan made 
 Lecompton a test. He and his viceroys made power 
 tyranny, and they made tyranny contemptible. I then 
 felt as I now feel — that obedience to such behests was a 
 crime. 
 
 I declared in 1858 that if the creed of Buchanlin on 
 the Kansas question became the policy of New Jersey, 
 and in the country', the Democratic party would become 
 a political and moral abomination. 
 
 The money power and the slave power triumphed, and 
 controlled the Democracy in the district in which 1 re- 
 sided. The Kansas candidate, who believed in Buchanan, 
 was nominated and defeated. 
 
 I said, in the Philadclidiia Press of October 19, 1858: 
 "The man who irf chosen to bear the Democi'atic stand- 
 
11 
 
 ard this fall inust betul to the aiiti-Leeompton senti- 
 ment; i\\e pr'mciplc will not bend to him, and no shifting- 
 or truckling on that question will satisfv the people or- 
 subdue the voters of the First District, and woe l)e to the • 
 candidate for Congressional honors ^vho has already 
 pledged himself against the double dealing of a treach- 
 erous Administration and has then turned back." 
 
 From that day to this I have been in undying liostility 
 to that sort of Democracy which liates liberty, loves 
 slavery, and would rather celebrate the funeral rites of 
 constitutional liberty amid the incantations and orgies of' 
 Secession and Rebellion, than see the triumphant adr- 
 vance of civilization which strikes the shackels from the 
 Slave and tells the oppressed to g© free. 
 
 Since 1860 the history of New" Jersey has been writteu 
 so that all the world has read it. I yield, Sir, to no Sen- 
 ator on this tloor in regard for the honor of New Jersey 
 — dearer to me than life itself. For her I have labored, 
 for her I have made sacrifices wdiich it does not become 
 me here to narrate, and for her future destiny I shall do 
 battle with my latest breath, hoping — aye, and praying — 
 that she may yet be free. But, Sir, and I say it with 
 shame, the political history of this State for three years 
 is one of which no patriot can be proud, save as its 
 darker lines are made glorious and lustrous bv the 
 deathless courage of New Jersey soldiers, who have 
 made crimson on ever}' battle tield from Roanoke to Get- 
 tysburg, with their blood, the banner of victory. 
 
 Mr. President, I am charged with being political^ 
 rather than argumentative. But, Sir, this is a political 
 (question; it is a cai)ital cause we are trying. The na- 
 tion is on trial for its life. The J^emocratic party has 
 already lieen tried and condemned. Has it anything to 
 say why sentence of fleath should not be pronouncedl 
 against it ? I pause for a reply. Who are its advocates? 
 Is it the sage of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson — a Vir- 
 ginian when Virginia was the mother of Presidents, and 
 not the grave of Northern patriots? No, AYho is it,, 
 then, who cometh with dyed garments to defend " De- 
 
12 
 
 niocracy as it is?" Ah ! Now T behold the melancholy 
 procession ! At its head I do not iind the sage of Mon- 
 ticello, or the " War Horse of the Herniita<»-e," but 1 
 behold Ohanncey Burr, the Senator from J5ergen (Mr. 
 Holsman)jtn(l David Naar ! 
 
 And now, Sir, a few words upon this measure, which 
 I understand has the sanction of the Democratic caucus, 
 •and I have (h)ne. I oppose the bill because — 
 
 JFlrs^l — It contravenes the laws of Congress. 
 
 •Second — Because it is against public policy and against 
 the rights of maidvind. 
 
 The laws of Congress passed in and since the year 
 1862 authorize the President to enroll, arm, ecpiip, and 
 to receive into the; land and naval service of the United 
 States such number of volunteei's of African tlescent as 
 lie may deem useful to suppress the present rebellion, 
 for such term as he may prescribe. 
 
 Under and b}- virtue of these several acts of Congress, 
 as I am informed by the chairman of the Military Com- 
 mittee of the United States, 80,000 colored men, many 
 of whom were once slaves and are now freedmen, are 
 unlisted in the armies of the Union. At least 30,0Q0 
 more of these despised Africans, al)out whom the ma- 
 jority of the Senate talk so much and care so little, are 
 employed by the Government, though they do not Avear 
 a soldier's uniform. These black men carry a flag which 
 is the symbol of nationality, of power and of liberty, 
 and they have never disgraced it. It is, then, the settled 
 ;policy of the United States Government to employ black 
 -soldiers. The experiment has been made under the 
 laws of Congress. Ft has succeeded. 
 
 And now I suppose the Legislature of ISTew Jersey 
 sends greeting to the War Department, with instructions 
 to desist from enlisting, under a penalty (for citizens of 
 this State) of " a fine not less than |)500, or imprison- 
 ment for a term of not less than five years." I am 
 pleased to be able to state that Democracy Avith Edwin 
 M. Stanton does not mean "strategy and peace," but 
 means "fidelity to one's country." The pi-ospect, there- 
 
13 
 
 fore, of impressing the peculiar views of a niajority of 
 this House in that quarter is quite slender. 
 
 The object of this bill is either to deceive the people 
 or to embarrass the government. If to deceive the peo- 
 ple, it is not a new game which is now played for the 
 first time ; if to embarrass the Government, it is only a 
 new foe with an old face, for the election of Horatio 
 Seymour on a war platform was soon made the occasion 
 for organizing an armed mob, who declared for peace in 
 the city of New York witli torch and sword ! 
 
 Let there be sincerity between us. The South began 
 this war in the interest of slavery. We began the war 
 for the Union ; we carry it on for tlie Union ; and we 
 will end it by subduing the rebellion, and ])y subjugating 
 tbe ',' fugitive masters" in the South. The war for us is 
 necessarily and justly in the interest of Freedom, for 
 Slavery is the lion in the way. God binds up the na- 
 tion's wounds with emancipation. The Constitution wa» 
 meant to '-'■ secure liberty,'" not to protect slavery. 
 
 No principle of law is plainer than the one whicli 
 denies to a State the power to pass laws in conflict witli 
 tlie lav/s of the United States ; and this bill practically 
 raises the banner of resistance, because it resists the law 
 of the Federal Government; and I am glad that the 
 Senator from Union (Mr. Jenkins) abjures the political 
 heresy of State Rights. Perhaps we can meet on friendly 
 grounds, as I learn he was once a Whig, when I quote 
 the language of Henry Clay: "If Kentucky unfurl to- 
 morrow the banner of resistance, I loill not fight under thai 
 flag. I owe allegiance to my native State, but I owe a 
 paramount allegiance to the United States Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 If it were recpiired, kSir, I could produce volumes of 
 testimony to the bravery and efficiency of our colored 
 soldiers. General Hunter, in speaking of the First 
 Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, said: "I ani 
 glad to be in the midst of you — glad to have seen so fine 
 an exhibition of proficiency as you have shown tliis day. 
 I only wish 1 had a hundred thousand of you to fight 
 for the freedom of the Union." 
 
14 
 
 Commodore Dupont wrote from Port Royal liia grati- 
 tude to the contrabands who had rallied around him, and 
 his declaration is : " They serve us with zeal, make no 
 bargains for their remuneration, go under tire without 
 the slightest hesitation, and, indeed, in our cause are as 
 ^insensible to fear ' as Governor Pickens. Some of them 
 are very intelligent." 
 
 At Wagner, when the gallant Shaw, of the Fifty- 
 fourth Massachusetts, fell with his feet to the foe and 
 his back to the field, a black sergeant, wounded and 
 bleeding, dragged himself forward when the color bearer 
 fell, and, Avrapping the flag about his body, crawled back, 
 amid a deadly rain of artillery ; and when he whispered 
 to the white soldiers in the hospital, "I saved the flag," 
 three cheers went up for the black sergeant of the Fifty- 
 fourth. 
 
 Let me assure the other side of the chamber that the 
 reign of force is ended, and even chivalry begins to un- 
 derstand that ideas rule the ivorld; civilization wrestles 
 with prejudice as the angel of old wrestled with the pa- 
 triarch, and prejudice will be smitten to the death. 
 
 I oppose this bill because it is against the rights of 
 mankind. The nation has outgrown the Dred Scott de- 
 cision, and the conscience of the nation is at last satis- 
 fied that God's lesson for America is that absolute jus- 
 tice to the African in mental and moral emanciption to 
 the white man. 
 
 I beg leave to refer to George Bancroft's views upon 
 the effort to betray the rights of man at the command of 
 j)assion and prejudice. lie says : "That ill-starred dis- 
 quisition is the starting point of tliis rebellion, which, 
 for a quarter of a century, had been vainly preparing to 
 raise its head. ' When courts of justice fail, war begins.' 
 The so-called opinion of Taney, Avho I trust did not in- 
 tend to hang out the flag of disunion — that rash ottence 
 to the conscious memory of the millions — upheaved our 
 country with the excitement which swept over those of 
 us who vainly lioped to preserve a strong and sufflcient, 
 though narrow^, isthmus that might stand between the 
 conflicting floods. !No nation can adopt that judgment 
 
as its rule and live; the judgment has in it no elcmoi\t 
 of political vitality. I will not say it is an invocation of 
 the dead past ; there never was a past that accepted such 
 opinions. If we want the opinions received in the days 
 when the Constitution was framed, we will not take 
 them second hand from our Chief Justice. We will let 
 the men of tliat day speak themselves. How will our 
 American magistrate sink when arraigned, as he will be, 
 before the tribunal of humanity ! How terrible will be 
 the verdict against him when he is put in comparison 
 with Washington's political teacher, the great Montes- 
 queiu, the enlightened magistrate of France, in what are 
 esteemed the worst days of her monarchy ! 
 
 " The arofument from the diiference of race which 
 Taney thrusts forward with passionate confidence as a 
 proof of complete disqualiiication, is brought forward by 
 Montesquieu as a scathing satire on all the brood of 
 despots who were supposed to uphold slavery as tolerable 
 in itself. The lights op MANKIND — that precious 
 word which had no equivalent in the language of Hin- 
 dostan, or Judea, or Greece, or Rome, or any anti- 
 Christian tongue — found their supporter in Washington 
 and Hamilton, in Franklin and Livingston, in Otis, 
 George Mason and (ladsden — in all the greatest men of 
 our early history. 
 
 "The one rule from which the makers of our first 
 Confederacy, and then of our National Constitution, 
 never swerved, is this : To fix no constitutional disabil- 
 ity in any one. AVhatever might stand in the way of 
 any man from opinion, ancestry, weakness of mind, in- 
 feriority, or inconvenience of any kind, was itself not 
 formed into a perfect disfranchisement. 
 
 "The Constitution of the United States was made 
 under the recognized influence of the eternal rule of 
 order 'and right,' so that, as far as its jurisdiction ex- 
 tends, it raised at once the numerous class who had been 
 chattels into the condition of persons. It neither origin- 
 ates nor perpetuates inequality." 
 
 If the Constitution does not perpetuate inequality 
 shall wo ? 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 jg 013 703 857 2 ^ 
 
 Thomas Jcfterson said: "The opinion that they (the 
 colored race) are inferior in the facnltics of reason and 
 imagination must be hazarded with great diffidence." 
 (Jefferson's Works, Vol. VIII., pp. 386.) He said after- 
 ward : " I expressed these views, tlierefore, with great 
 hesitation ; but, luhatever be their degree of talent, it is no 
 measure of their right. Because Sir Isaac Newton was 
 superior to others in understanding lie was not, there- 
 fore, lord of the person and property of others." 
 
 We are now paying the price of our national vices, as 
 well as virtues. If this nation had been without virtues, 
 we would possibly have been at peace, but it would have 
 been the peace which follows dissolution and death. 
 
 The monumetit at Bunker Hill stands for Prescott and 
 Putnam and Warren, and it also stands for Salem, the 
 colored man who shot the gallant Pitcairn as he mounted 
 the parapet. 
 
 Red Bank, in the Revolution, and Bladensburg and 
 New Orleans, at a later day, attest the valor of the col- 
 ored soldier. 
 
 Our unfriendly legislation will not stay the eternal 
 laws of order and right. Let us rather hasten the ad- 
 vance of that day when we may " realize truth without 
 suffering, and follow the triumphant road of justice with- 
 out watering it with tears." The revolution through 
 which we are passing is a necessary one, and if we are 
 true to ourselves it will be one fortunate for all the 
 world. Let us endeavor to elevate a race which for cen- 
 turies has been despised, and in doing this we elevate 
 ourselves. 
 
 The struggle will soon be over. The right never fails 
 in the eternal years of God. And this country will be- 
 come what Garibaldi and Cavour dreamed that Italy 
 might be. Privilege will no longer stalk in our streets, 
 while justice speaks with "bated breath and whispering- 
 humblances;" and as we look over this continent, we 
 will say of our native land in the next four years that, 
 "Under such an Administration as that of Abraham 
 Lincoln this country will become what it ought to be, 
 and what I believe its Divine Author intended it to be — 
 not a vast plantation for the breeding of human beings 
 for the purposes of lust and bondage, but a new valley 
 of Jehosophat, in which the nations of the earth, ac- 
 knowledging and worshipping a common God, will as- 
 semble and celebrate the resurrection of human free- 
 dom." 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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