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 MODERN DEMOCRACY 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 THE UNION, THE CONSTITUTION, THE POLICY OF OUE FATHER? 
 AND THE RIGHTS OF FREE LABOR. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. HENRY WALDRON, OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 28, 1860. 
 
 Mr. Chairman: The Thirty-sixth Con- 
 gress has reached the fifth month of its 
 first session. It assembled in this Capitol 
 with fi^reat and varied interests demanding 
 consideration and attention. The public 
 creditors impatiently awaited our coming, 
 for they were on the verg« of bankruptcy, 
 and had long served without their just re- 
 muneration. The plighted faith of our 
 Government was to be redeemed. The 
 men whom we came here to serve, were 
 pressing upon our attention matters of 
 vital importance. There were legitimate 
 subjects of legislation before us, such as 
 the admission of new Stales, the organi- 
 zation of new Territories, the homestead 
 bill, the Pacific railroad, the development 
 of our resources at home and the protec- 
 tion of our interests abroad. All these 
 were subjects that properly commended 
 themselves to the attention of an Ameri- 
 can Congress, and our constituents had 
 reason to expect that they would receive 
 fitting and careful consideration at our 
 hands. 
 
 But, to the exclusion of all these mat- 
 ters, the " irrepressible conflict" breaks 
 out. Before the eun goes down on the 
 first day of the session, the subject of sla- 
 very is introduced by the Democratic par- 
 ty ; and for eight long weeks an organi- 
 zation of this House was prevented by a 
 discussion, in which passion took the place 
 
 of reason, and vituperation was the sub- 
 stitute for argument. 
 
 While the Republicans in this body 
 vveie in no wise responsible for that con- 
 flict, still, for one, I can say that the dis- 
 cussion was not unexpected; nor, more 
 than that, was it unwelcome. Whatever 
 is across our pathway may as well be 
 reached and confronted at one time as at 
 another. No man can close his eyes to 
 the fact that there is a question now agita- 
 ting this land, before which questions of 
 finance and tariffs, of protection and im- 
 provement, dwindle into insignificance. 
 It is a question which cannot be settled 
 by compromises, nor dodged by time-ser« 
 ving expedients. It must be met fairly 
 and squarely, and in the light of reason, 
 justice, and humanity, receive its determi- 
 nation and abide its settlement. That ques- 
 tion underlies all party organizations, 
 moulds every party policy^and goes to the 
 root of all party controversies. It is a 
 question whether the equal rights of men 
 are to be affirmed in the legislation and 
 policy of our Government, or whether the 
 idea of an oligarchy is to be recognised, 
 which protects the interests of a privi- 
 leged class, at the expense of the toiling 
 millions of our Confederacy. The vital, 
 all-absorbing issue of to-day is, whether 
 the Republic is to be perpetuated in the 
 faith, the spirit, the practice of its found- 
 
■£432 
 
 ers, or whether it is to be perverted in its ' 
 policy and workings, to subserve the in- 
 Jeresis of a baneful aristocracy. Before 
 that issue the counterfeit Democracy has 
 quailed and succumbed ; false to its name, 
 faithless to its traditions, recreant to its 
 professions, it is now the ally of capital 
 against labor, the champion of caste and 
 privilege against equality and right. 
 
 When I speak of the Democratic party, 
 I refer not to the organization of the past, 
 for that party once recognised the inalien- 
 able rights of man, and to its ears freedom 
 had not become a hateful sound ; but I 
 speak of the Democratic organization of 
 to-day, "which has espoused the cause of 
 the strong against the weak, of the rich 
 against the poor, of the pampered capital- 
 ist against the hardy son ol" toil. I speak 
 of the party which is compelled by the 
 slave power to carry its blaok flag and to 
 fight its political battles under the crush- 
 ing burden of its wrongs. I speak of the 
 party which would still farther oppress 
 and degrade those who are now low in the 
 scale of humanity, and which would re- 
 press that sympathy for the struggling 
 ■which a sentiment of benevolence or a 
 sense of justice might prompt, h is of 
 that party, as controlled by the slave pow- 
 er—doing its bidding, registering its de- 
 crees, supporting its policy, and sustain- 
 ing its candidates — that I speak. I ar- 
 raign it before the country as false to the 
 policy of our Revolutionary fathers; as 
 unfaithful to the obligations of our com- 
 mon Constitution ; as disloyal to the in- 
 tegrity of the Union, and as the betrayer 
 and vilifier of the honest industry of the 
 land. These are the charges. Now for 
 tlie proof. 
 
 First, the Democratic party is arrayed 
 flininst the policy and teachings of the 
 Republicans of the Revolution, as well 
 83 of the Republicans of to-day. The 
 principles of our organization come down 
 Vo us in the Declaration of Independence. 
 li'he sentiments of hosiility to bondage 
 which we assert are but the echoes of the 
 utterances of our fathers. They believed 
 the institution of African slavery to be in- 
 consistent with the genius and hostile to 
 ihe spirit of the Government they had 
 founded. When they framed the Federal 
 Constitution, they thought it wrong to ad- 
 mit, by any word in that instrument, " the 
 idea of property in man ; " they regarded 
 
 the rnftilution of chattel slavery, as then 
 existing among them, as a deplorable 
 evil, and their legislation was with a view 
 to reistrict and confine it. And I here 
 place upon record the sayings and wri- 
 tings of those men, as testimony to con- 
 firm my position, and at the same time 
 place in striking contrast this modern De- 
 mocracy as it bows down before the Mo- 
 loch of human bondage. 
 
 The men of 1776 tell us, to use their 
 own language, that " the people were 
 struck with the inconsistency of an ap- 
 peal for their own liberties, while hold- 
 ing in bondage their fellow-men, guilty 
 only of a skin not colored like their 
 own;" and the citizens of Georgia, in 
 1775, sent forth to the world the follow- 
 ing manifesto : 
 
 "To show the -world that we are not influ- 
 enced by any contracted or interested motives, 
 but by a general philanthropy for all mankind, 
 of whatever climate, language, or complexion, 
 we hereby declare our disapprobation and ab- 
 I horrence of the unnatural practice of slavery, as 
 (however the uncultivated state of the country 
 or other specious arguments may plead for it) a 
 a practice founded in injustice and cruelty, and 
 highly dangerous to our liberties as well as 
 lives, debasing part of our fellow-creatures be- 
 low men, and corrupting the virtue and morals 
 of the rest." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, if any Georgian to-day 
 should stand over the graves of the men 
 who placed <his sentiment upon record, 
 and repeat it as his own earnest convic- 
 tion, he would be driven by the Democ- 
 racy from his house and his hearthstone 
 as a traitor to his party, or lynched as a 
 felon and an outlaw. 
 
 George Washington wa.s President of 
 the Convention which framed the Consti- 
 tution, and he was surrounded by men 
 who were fresh from the councils and 
 contests of the Revolutionary struggle ; 
 ihey had drank in the spirit of the con- 
 test, and they came together, as they ex- 
 pressed it, " to secure to themselves and 
 their children the blessings of liberty," 
 while they spared no occasion to de- 
 nounce the evil, the wrong, and the curse, 
 of human bondage. 
 
 Washington said " his vote never would 
 be wanting for the passage of a law to 
 abolish slavery." He writes to John F, 
 Mercer : 
 
 " I never mean, unless some particular cir- 
 cumstances should compel me to it, to possess 
 1 another slave by purchase, it being among my 
 
Jirat tuuhes to see some plan adopted by which 
 slavery in this country may be abolished by 
 law." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson declared, in 1774 : 
 
 "The hbolition of domestic slavery is the 
 greatest object of desire in these colonies, where 
 it was unhappily introduced in their infant 
 state." 
 
 And at a later period of his life, as the 
 result of more mature experience, he says: 
 
 " Nothing is more certainly written in the book 
 '-- of fate, than that these people [the negroes] are 
 ^ to be free ; nor is it less certain that the two 
 races, equally free, cannot live in the same Gov- 
 ernment. Nature, habit, opinion, have drawn 
 indelible lines of distinction between them. It 
 is still in oi;r power to direct the process of eman- 
 cipciiion and deportation, and in such slow de- 
 grees as that the evil will wear off insensibly, 
 ,. and their place be, pari passu, filled up liy free 
 ^ white laborers. If, on the contrary, if, is left to 
 ib force itself on, human nature must shudder at 
 the prospect held up." 
 
 Patrick Henry adds his testimony, in a 
 letter dated January 18, 1793: 
 
 " I believe a time will come when an opportuni- 
 ty will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. 
 Everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens 
 in our day ; if not, let us transmit to our descend- 
 ants, together with our slaves, a pity for their 
 unhappy lot, and an abhorrence for slavery. If 
 we Cfinnot reduce this wished-for reformation to 
 practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with 
 lenity. It is the furthest advance we can make 
 toward justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity 
 of our religion, to show that it is at variance with 
 ihat law which warrants slavery." 
 
 And another eloquent and eccentric 
 son of the Old Dominion (John Randolph) 
 says : 
 
 " I give to my slaves their freedom, to which 
 my conscience tells mi> they are justly en- 
 titled. It has a long time been a matter of the 
 deepest regret to me, that the circumstances 
 under which I inherited them, and the obstacles 
 thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have 
 prevented my emancipating them in my lifetime, 
 which it is my full intention to do in case I can 
 accomplish it." 
 
 And, now, where would these men of 
 ihe olden time stand, if they were once 
 more in the land they loved, and for which 
 ihey labored ? What fellowship would 
 our modern Democracy hold with Thomas 
 Jetfersonr Where is the Democrat who 
 dare announce as his political creed the 
 sentiments of a Washington.' Who in 
 the ranks of that organization dare repeat 
 the old republican doctrines of a Madison, 
 a Henry, and a Randolph ? What Dem- 
 ocratic Convention will enunciate in ils 
 platform the great truths that our fathers 
 
 blazoned forth in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence.'' Mr. Chairman, none dare do 
 it, except af the sacrifice of his party 
 •standing. The man who stands up and 
 avows his belief and concurrence in the 
 b!ood-bapfized doctrines of our fathers, 
 will very speedily find himself outside of 
 this Democratic organization. That party 
 spurns the teachings of sages and states- 
 men, as heresies and abfitractions, and 
 calls the Declaration of Indefiendence "a 
 siring of glittering generalities." New 
 lights guide their footsteps ; new counsels 
 govern their votes. 
 
 I have quoted the Democratic doctrine 33 
 expounded by Virginiansof theoldschool. 
 Now, by way of contiast, let me quote the 
 doctrine of modern Virginia Democracy. 
 On the 13th of Junuary last, a geiitlenian 
 [Mr. Smith] who once filled the Executive 
 chair in the Old Dominion, and who is 
 now, as for years past, an influential Dem- 
 ocrat, on this floor, was asked whether he 
 repudiated the sentiments of the Revolu- 
 tionary fathers on the subject of African 
 slavery. His reply was : 
 
 '• I will say, however, in the outset, that the 
 gentleman refers to the sentiments of disi inguish- 
 ed Revolutionary men, and asks me if I repudiate 
 them. Sir, mam/ of those sentiments of cc'jrse I re- 
 pudiate. [Derisive laughter from the Republi- 
 cans.] Many of those, sentiments are false in phi- 
 losoph'i and unsound in fact." 
 
 Another Virginian, at the other end of 
 the Capitol, [Senator Mason,] ailniitted, 
 a few days ago, that a new etandar 1 of D3- 
 mocracy had been erected ; and Ife states 
 the conclusions to which the n(!w faith 
 brings its disciples : 
 
 " What I meant to say the other day, and what 
 I think I did say, was tbis : that becau-f* of the 
 agitation by one portion of this Uuiou on the 
 question of the abolition of slavery, the m:nd of 
 the South had been brought more deeply and 
 considerately to ponder upon it ; the mind of the 
 South had been brought by that agitation to 
 look further into the condition of slavery, and 
 into the consequences that resulted from it ; and 
 I was satisfied that the raind of the South had 
 undergone a change to this great extent : that 
 it was now almost the universal belief in the 
 South, not only that the condition of African 
 bondage in their midst was the best iiondition 
 to which the African race had ever been sub- 
 jected, but that it had the effect of enno'Aing both 
 races, the white and the black." 
 
 And another Virginian on this floor 
 [Mr. Pritor] avows that the anti-slavery 
 impulses of his State have been stifled, 
 and that the " uadiliunal ideas'' oi'hisan- 
 
cestors have been " contravened," with 
 the fact, to use his own language : 
 
 " Discovered and demoaatrated, that negro ala- 
 Tery, instead of being aa accidental evil, which 
 men tolerate merely for want of a practical rem- 
 edy, is an institution which exists in virtue of 
 the most essential human interests, and the 
 highest sanctions of the moral law." 
 
 I might multiply quotations and ex- 
 tracts, of undoubted Deinocrauc aulliori- 
 hy, to show that ihe portiiion of the De- 
 mocracy is ;i JiviniT denial of the great 
 truths and piinciplfs wfiich underlie the 
 foundation m tlii.-^ {Confederacy ; but the 
 fact will not \)(^ disjiuied that it haschanwed 
 its ground, m.d abandoned Ihe path of its 
 fathers, because, while they deplored the 
 existence <»i' blaveiy as an evil, to he 
 restricted m.d discourajjed, modorn De- 
 mocracy is compelled to subscribe to a 
 contrary doctrine; namely, that slavery is 
 an institution to be fostered and encour- 
 aged as a blessing to the black man as well 
 as the white. 
 
 And now, having demonstrated that this 
 party is false to the impulses and convic- 
 tioRs which strengthened the faith and 
 nerved the arm of our faihcrs, I proceed 
 to show that it is also faithless to the obli- 
 gations of that Constitution which was the 
 crowning glory and result of their toil and 
 suffering. 
 
 The second section of the fourth article 
 of that instrument declares that — 
 
 "The citizens of each State shall be entitled 
 to all the privileges and immunities of citizens 
 in the several States." 
 
 Here is a provision which guaranties to 
 the citizen of South Catolina the -same 
 protection, when in Michigan, which the 
 sovereignty of Michigan extends to her 
 own citizens; and, on the other hand, it 
 entitles the traveller from the North to the 
 "privileges and immunities" which attach 
 to a Southern citizen under the shield of 
 bis own State sovereignty. It is a pro- 
 vision essentia! to and growing out of the 
 comity and good fellowship which should 
 exist between confederated States. But 
 how is this obligation regarded and lullilled 
 in the different sections of this Union t 
 Why, citizens of slave States can travel 
 outside of those Slates with more safety 
 and less risk than they can inside of them. 
 Ihe Republicans of the free North tolerate 
 110 institutions which are inconsistent with 
 the spirit of the Constitution ; they recog- 
 iiii.e the obligations of that instrument, 
 
 and live up to thsni. But, on the con= 
 trary, we have wi.'nessed in the slave 
 States n striking down of the constitutional 
 guaranties of the citizen, by enactments 
 which contravene alike the letter and 
 spirit of our common bond. Laws have 
 existed for forty years, in some of the 
 Southern States, which forbid Ihe entrance 
 of free citizens, under penalty of impris^on- 
 ment and sale — laws which are a direct, 
 an open, a palpable infringement of the 
 rights of Northern men; and yet our Dem- 
 ocratic Administration, whilst it clamora 
 so loudly and persistently about the rights 
 of American citizens in Mexico or some 
 other feeble Sepublic, whose territory it 
 covets, has not a word to utter in vindica- 
 tion of the constitutional prerogatives of 
 Ihe citizen on his own soil. 
 
 Every attempt which has been made to 
 test the constitutionality of these laws has 
 been resisted by force. The Constitution 
 prescribes an arbiter, a tribunal, where the 
 citizen may assert liis rights as against the 
 legislation of another State; and the 
 Legislature of Massachusetts sent two of 
 her most worthy citizens to Charleston, 
 to test in the courts the validity of these 
 laws. But these men not only set at de- 
 fiance the plainest provisions of the Fe<J. 
 eral compact, but they refused them the 
 privilege of bringing suit, even in a South 
 Carolina court. The men who went there 
 from Massachusetts, on a peaceful, a Je- 
 gitimale errand, were compelled, through 
 tear of personal violence, to abandon their 
 mission and leave the State; and the men 
 uho constitute the life, the essence, the 
 perfection of modern Doniociacy, boldly 
 avow the fact that ihis clause of the Con- 
 stitution is a dead letter, and that the de- 
 cisinns of courts are nothing to them. 
 
 As an evidence of this fict, I call atten- 
 tion to the language which a Democratic 
 Senator from South Carolina used durin.o- 
 this session, when commenting upon this 
 incident in the history of his Slate. He 
 said : 
 
 " The State fonnd it necessary for self-protec- 
 tion to pass these police regulations, to prevent 
 those persons who were hostile towards us from 
 manifesting their hostility by the transmission 
 of their emissaries through the pretended righta 
 of citizens, under the Constitution. The Stato 
 felt it due to herself, to her own safety, to lon- 
 sider, and she was authorized to consider, that 
 this was but and her mode to bring that question 
 before the Supreme Court, zvkerc we did not hioio 
 hoK it ivould he decided, nor did ice care. We kuey 
 
the right to pass such Ietts was inherent in the 
 Bovereignty of the State, and iL-c did not intend to 
 tubmit it to any tribunal." 
 
 The State of Virginia hns enacted a law 
 which places the cnastii)g vessel which 
 seeks the refuge of her harbors under the 
 surveilldDce of her police, and compels 
 the vessel itself to pay the expense and 
 endure the delay of an examination. And 
 wlier> this law is complained of, as unfair, 
 tinjnst, and unconstitulioual, Senator IIIa- 
 SON replies : 
 
 " It is a p*lice law of the State; and whether 
 the State has a right to paus it or not, is a matter 
 which the State will determine for itself, and by it- 
 self." 
 
 Nor is the provision which I have quoted 
 the only portion of our Constitution which 
 this slave Democracy tramples under foot. 
 We have sacred jruatanties in that instru- 
 ment in behalf of free speech, free tlinught, 
 and a free press, and yet to-day Demo- 
 cratic postmasters rifle mails and violate 
 Ihe sanctity of private correspondence. 
 To-day, a system of espionage prevails, 
 which would disgrace the despotism and 
 darkness of the middle ages. The news 
 paper which refuses to recount the bless- 
 ings and sing the praises of slavery is 
 committed to the flames. The press that 
 refuses to vilify the memory of the fathers 
 is taken by a ruthless mob and engulfed 
 beneath the waters. The personal safety 
 of the traveller depends, not on his deeds, 
 but upon his opinions. And these out- 
 rages are daily committed under the rule 
 of the J)emocracy, because that party has 
 taken under its guardian care an institu- 
 tion which can only exist and prosper at 
 the sacrifice and expense of the constitu- 
 tional rights of the citizen. Where slavery 
 is, there can be no free speech, no free 
 thought, no free press, no regard for Con- 
 stitutions, no deference to courts. 
 
 And, Mr. Chairman, as a further indi- 
 cation of utter disregard for constitutional 
 right, look at the infamous enactment 
 which the Democracy have placed upon 
 the statute-book, in the shape of a fugitive 
 slave law. That law not only makes 
 charity a crime and hospitality a felony, 
 but it strikes down the very safeguards of 
 personal liberty. It creates judicial officers 
 in express defiance of the Constitution. 
 It offers them bribes to decide against the 
 poor and the foi.^aken. It is a usurpation 
 of legislation never conceded to the Fed- 
 eral Government, because the surrender of 
 
 fugitives from service was an obligatior 
 imposed upon the States. It denies tht 
 writ i.)^ habeas corpus and the right of tria 
 by jury — boons which were wrung fron 
 the hands of despotism by the blood o 
 thousands and the sufferings of centuries 
 As a citizen of Michigan, I glory in ih( 
 fact that that State has, by counter legis' 
 lalion, vindicated the sovereignty of ihf 
 State, and protected the personal liberty 
 of the citizen. Whilst the Democracy de- 
 grades itself to do the bidding of the slave 
 power, the Republican parly rises to a due 
 appreciation of its mission, as the con- 
 servator of fight and the defender of con- 
 stitutional guaranties. 
 
 And, to pass along hastily to the next 
 proposition, I shall convict this counier/eit 
 Democracy of di^Ioya!fy to the Union pf 
 these States, by evidence which no mau 
 will attempt to impeach, for it comes from 
 their own lips. While the Republican 
 party clings with unswerving fideliiy lo 
 the Union and the Constitution, the De- 
 mocracy is as disloyal to the one as it is 
 faithless to the other. This Hall yet echoes 
 with the menaces of disunion which the 
 accepted leaders of the Democracy thun- 
 dered in the ears of their colleagues and 
 constituents. The word has gone forth, 
 that this Government cannot be a Gov- 
 ernr^ient of a mnjority, expressing its will 
 under the forms and requirements of the 
 Constitution. We are told that when this 
 Governnsent is administered in accordance 
 with the policy of its founders, "lo estab- 
 lish justice," " promote the general wel- 
 fare, and secure the blessings of Hberly,'* 
 that then the parricidal arm of disunion 
 Democracy will rend it in twain. You 
 and I, Mr. ChairiDan, heard the gentleman 
 from Georgia [Mr. Crawford] declare: 
 
 " Now, iu regard to the election of a Black Re- 
 publican President, I have this to say, and I 
 speak the sentiment of everj Democrat on tb,i8 
 floor from the State of Georgia — we will never 
 submit to the inauguration of a Black Kepubli- 
 can President. [Applause from the Democratic 
 benches, and hisses from the Republicans.] I 
 repeat it, sir — and I have authority to say so — 
 that no Democratic Representative from Georgia 
 on this floor will ever submit to the inauguration 
 of a Black Republican President. [Renewed ap- 
 plause and hisses.] * * * * Xhe most 
 confiding of them all, sir, are for ' equality in the 
 Union or independence out of it ; ' having lost all 
 hope in the focmer, I am for 'independence now 
 
 AND INDEPENDKNCK FOREVER.' " 
 
 And we heard his colleague [Mr. Gar- 
 
6 
 
 rRELL] declare that when a Republican 
 President shall have been elected — 
 
 "The time will have come when the South 
 Must aad will take an unmistakable and decided 
 iciion, and that then, 'he who dallies is a das- 
 tard and he who doubts is damned.' I need not 
 ell what I, as a Southern man, will do — I think 
 [ may safelj' speak for the masses of the people 
 )f Georgia— that when that event happens, they, 
 n my judgment, will consider it an overt act, a 
 leclaration of war, and meet immediately in coa- 
 rention, to take into consideration the mode and 
 :neasure of redress. That is my position ; and 
 it that be treason to the Government, make the 
 most of it." 
 
 We alsn heard the gentleman Trom Mis- 
 sissippi [Mr. McRae] speak for ihe De- 
 tnocracy of his Stale in a similar coiitin- 
 ^eticy : 
 
 " I said to my constituents, and to the people 
 fit the capital of my State, on my way here, that 
 it such an event did occur, while it would be 
 Lheir duty to determine the coutse which the 
 Stats would pursue, it would be my privilege to 
 L-ouusel with them as to what I believed to be 
 the proper course ; and I said to them, what I 
 say now, and will aivrays say in such an event, 
 Lhat my counsel would be to take independence 
 aut of the Union in preference to the loss of con- 
 stitutional rights, and consequent degradation 
 and dishonor, in it. That is my position, and it is 
 the position which I know the Democratic party 
 of the State of Mississippi will maintain." 
 
 Ar)d the gentleman [Mr. De Jaknette] 
 whorepresents the Democracy ofihe Rich- 
 tnciiid district said to us, in reference to 
 William H. Seward: 
 
 " You may elect him President of the North, 
 but of the South never. Whatever the event may 
 be, others may differ; but Virginia, in view of 
 ^e'r ancient renown, in view of her illustrious 
 dead, and in view of her nic semper ii/ranms, will 
 resist his authority." 
 
 But it is useless to multiply quotations 
 of this character. I shall give but one 
 more, and that is important mainly froui 
 the fact that it comes to us from the State 
 of Texas, a State which is hardly yet warm 
 in the embraces of its sisters ; a State 
 which talks valiantly in one moment about 
 arresting the wheels of Government, and 
 iulhenextmomentasks imploringly of that 
 same Government for additional protection 
 agamst the incursions of its border In- 
 dians. 
 
 The extract derives additional signifi- 
 cance from the fact lhat it fell from the 
 lips of a candidate for Speaker, who re- 
 ceived the votes, not otily of Southern 
 but also of Nortliern Democrats. On the 
 
 27th of January last, the member from 
 Texas [Mr. Habiilton] said : 
 
 " Whotever may be said by some to maintain 
 it at all hazards, 1 believe that a dissolution of 
 Ibe Union is this day upon us. The Union, sir, 
 is bei«ig dissolved now. It may be in the po\\er 
 of the conservative elements of this House to ar- 
 rest it ; but that cannot be done by the election 
 of a Black Republican Speaker. I believe that 
 I represent as conservative a constituency as any 
 gentleman upon this tioor ; a people who are as 
 de\'t)ted to the Union ; a people, sir, who have, 
 I think, manifested that devotion by as much 
 liberality and uuseltishness, by yielding up what 
 no other State in this Union has yielded, a sep- 
 arate and independent nationality, in order to 
 participate in this Confederacy, which we all 
 proless so much to loye; and yet that same 
 State, that same people, are now solemnly resolv- 
 ing that it is better that the wheels of Govern- 
 ment should be arrested where they are to-day, 
 and no organization ever effected, than that the 
 candidate of the Republican party shall be elect- 
 ed, and placed in the Speaker's chair." 
 
 We well recollect, Mr. Chairman, that 
 these disunion sentiments were uttered 
 here, not only unrebuked, but that ihey 
 were welcomed by the approving nods, 
 the congratulations, the applause, ol Dem- 
 ocrats, both on this floni and in the crowd- 
 ed galleries. They have their parallel in 
 kindred scntinfjents which are avowed out- 
 side of this Hall by members of the same 
 organization. They boldly proclaim that 
 if the coming Presidential election results 
 as the slave power desires, then the elec- 
 tion is binding upon them and upon ns ; 
 but if otherwise, then they will dissolve 
 the Union and tear the Constitution into 
 frasments. 
 
 There may be men so craven in spirit 
 that they will be deterred from voting their 
 honest convictions by threat?, but tiiey 
 are not found in the Republican ranks. 
 The man who allows a menace to control 
 his suffrage is only fit to be a slave. You 
 have allies at the North who have sacri- 
 ficed much of consistency, much of self- 
 respect, much of manhood, in submitting 
 to your dictation ; and, perhaps, these 
 multerings of disunion may compel more 
 concessions, more humiliation, from them ; 
 but the Republican party, laughing to 
 scorn such menaces, and guided by the 
 old landmarks which the experience of 
 the past has hallowed, will travel in the 
 old path, illumined as it is by conscience 
 and by duty. If the popular verdict is 
 against them, they submit cheerfully in 
 the future as they have in the past. If the 
 
popular verdict is against you, they enter- 
 tain no apprehensions but that jou wilt 
 submit also. 
 
 I have but a few moments left, in 
 which to refer to the position which 
 the Democracy occupy in relation to the i 
 great interests of free labor in this land. 
 In the contest between capital and labor, 
 that parly espouses the cause of capital. 
 It no longer sympathizes with man, white 
 or black, who is struggling to recover his 
 rights or ameliorate his condition. If the 
 c?r of human progress is to move on, it 
 niust move, not by the help of this De- 
 mocracy, but in spite of it. When the 
 toiling millions ask for homesteads on our 
 vast domain, they are met by the jeers 
 and taunts of this mis-named Democracy, 
 and told that they constitute " the very 
 mud-sills of society and political govern- 
 menl." When the white laborer would 
 carve out his own fortune on the prairies 
 of the West, he is told, in the words of 
 the Richmond Examiner, that "the prin- 
 ciple of slavery is in itself right, and 
 does not depend upon difference of com- 
 plexion;" or, as a Democratic Senator 
 expresses it : 
 
 " The poor ye always have with you ; for the 
 man icho lives by daily labor, and scarcely lives at 
 that, and who has to put out hii labor in the market, 
 and take the bent he can yet for it — in ihort, your 
 whole class of manual laborers and operatives, as 
 you call them, are essentially slaves." 
 
 Mr. Fiizhugh, in his book entitled Fail- 
 ure of Free Society, says: 
 
 * * * <t Slavery, black or white, is right and 
 necessary. * * * The slaves are governed 
 far better than the free laborers at toe Norih are 
 governed. Our negroes are not only belter ojf as to 
 physical comfort than free laborers, but their moral 
 coiiditio7i is better." — Fage 98. 
 
 From the same book, on page 179, I 
 quote the following; 
 
 "Men are not 'born entitled to equal rights. 
 It would be far nearer the truth to say that som-e 
 were born with saddles on their backs, and others 
 booted and spurred to ride them ; and the riding 
 does them good." 
 
 Within the last few years, the homestead 
 bill has received the sanction of the House 
 of Representatives oa tluee separate oc- 
 
 casions, but it is uniformly strangled in a1 
 Democratic Senate. And the Democratic 
 party, viewing that measure from its stand- 
 point, and by the light of its modern doc- 
 trines and principles, is consistent in op- 
 posir)g it. The determination of that 
 measure involves the issue whether our 
 frontier Territories are to sink into com- 
 munities of despots and slaves, or rise into 
 republics of freemen ; whether our West- 
 ern territory shall be dotted with slave huts, 
 the abodes of degradation and misery, G.r 
 whether the pioneer's pleasant dwellitig, 
 ijarnished by flower and shrub, shall arise 
 by the side of the stream, the home of con- 
 tentment, rehnement, and industry. This 
 measure of " land for the landless" is an 
 important element in the " irrepressible 
 conflict" between opposing systems of la- 
 bor ; and whilst it is meet and proper that 
 the Republican party espouses the cause 
 of the hardy pioneer, who would make 
 the valley echo with the cheerful sound or 
 free labor, it is equally fitting and appro- 
 priqte that the Democracy should Like the 
 side of ihe master, who would make the 
 same valleys resound with the crack of tlie 
 overseer's lash. 
 
 The conflict between capital and hber 
 has ever been a fearful one. It has con- 
 vulsed nations, shaken thrones, and caused 
 blood to flow like water. Fortunately, iu 
 our day it assumes the phase of a peace- 
 ful conflict, in which political parties aro 
 the contestants, and tlie ballot is the ef- 
 fective weapon. On the one side is ar- 
 rayed the Republican party, vindicating 
 the dignity of free labor, and asserting the 
 rights of the toiling millions ; while its an- 
 tagonist is a false Democracy, reviling the 
 laboring man as a slave, and prostitutincr 
 itself to the interests and purposes of a 
 purse-proud oligarchy. The contest may 
 be protracted, but the issue cannot be 
 doubtful. Step by step the advancing 
 columns of the Republican host move on, 
 bearing in their hands the dearest interests 
 of humanity, and cherishing in their hearts 
 an abiding confidence in the justice of 
 their cause, as well as in its ultimate suc- 
 cess. 
 
011 895 901 2 
 
 The Kepublican Executive Congressional Committee are pre- 
 pared to furnish the following Speeches and Documents : 
 
 Eight Pages, 50 cents per hundred. 
 
 Tho State of the Country— W. }I. Si'Wiird. 
 " Irrt/prcssihle Omllict"— 4V. H. i^£;w;ll•d. 
 i'rof Hoiucs lor Froo Men— G. A. Grow. 
 Sli:iU t!jo Toi'ritorics bo Al'ricanizod — James Harlan. 
 ■\\'1k> liiivo ViolatocI Comijromiscs — .Jolm Uickinan. 
 Invasion of Harper's Ferry — B. F. Wade. 
 The .Speakcrslii]) — G. W. !-^crantoii aud J. H. Campbell. 
 <.x)luiiiz.iti"ii and Commorcf — F. I'. Blair. 
 Ccueral Politics — Orris t^. Ferry. 
 
 U'tiii Ueinands of the Souib — Tho Republican Party Vindi- 
 cated — -ibrabam Lincoln. 
 The Homestead Bill— It,s Friends and its Foes— W. Window. 
 The B^irbarisni of Slavery — Ovveu Lovejoy. 
 The Kew Dogma of the iSoulli — " Slavej'y a Blessing'-' — 11. 
 
 L. liawes. 
 Tho Position of Parties— R. H. Dnoll. 
 Tho Ifomeslead Bill — M. S. Wiikiiisoa. 
 I'olyf;amy in Utrdi — 1). W. Goocb. 
 JDouglas and Popular Sovereignty — Carl Schurz. 
 rounds for tho Landless— A Tract. 
 The Poor Whites of the South — The Injury done tliera by 
 
 Slavery— A Tract. 
 A Protective TariU" Necessary — Paghts of Labor — James H. 
 
 Campbell. 
 Tho Fanaticism of tho Democratic Party — Owen Lovejoy. 
 Mission of Republicans — Sectionalism of Modcxn Benioc- 
 
 rac>' — flobort McKnight. 
 Southern Sectionalism — Jolm Hickman. 
 Freedom vs. Slavery — John Hutchins. 
 llepublkan Land Policy — Homes lor the Sfdlion — Stopbca C. 
 
 Foster. 
 Tarifl— Justin S. Morrill. 
 
 Legislative Protection to the Industry of the People- Alex- 
 ander H. llice. 
 Jlodcru Hemooracy — Henry Waldron. 
 Tho Territorial tflave Policy ; The Bciiublican Party ; What 
 
 the North has lo do with Slavery — Thomas D. Eliot. 
 The Supreme Court of the United states — Uo.scoo Coukling. 
 Designs of tho PLopoblican Parly — Christopher liubiuson. 
 Address — Montgomery Blair. 
 
 The Nece.=;sity ol Protecting American Labor — J. P. Verrce. 
 The J'^epublic-an Party and' its Principles— James T. Hale. 
 Kevenue and K.^peudituros — John Sherman. 
 The Claims of Agriculture— John Carey. 
 Negro Kqiiality— The Uiglit of One Man to Hold Property in 
 Another- The Democratic Party a Disunion Party— The 
 Success of the Republican Party the only Salvation for the 
 Country— Benjamin Stanton. 
 Mutual Interest of tho Farmer and Jtinufacturor— Carey A. 
 
 Trimble. 
 Tlio Tariff— Its Constitutionality, Necessity, and Advanta- 
 ges — John T. Nixon. 
 Posilion of Parties and Abusesof Power— Reuben K. Fen ton. 
 Bill and Report P.epealing the Territorial Laws of Now Mexi- 
 co — Jo''.n A. Bin.^ham. 
 Democracy u/ia.? Slavery— James B. McKean. 
 Abraham Lincoln, His Personal History and Public Record— 
 
 E. B. Vi'ashburuo. 
 The President's Message— The Sectional Party— John A. 
 
 Bingham. 
 The Republican Party a Necessity— Charles F. Adams. 
 Tho Filibustering Policy of the Sham Democracy— J. J. Perry. 
 Modern Democracy — lustin S. Morrill. 
 Ecpiality of Rights in the Territories- Harrison G. Blake. 
 Resigning His Position as Chairman of the Committee on 
 Commerce and reasons for leaving the Democratic Party — 
 Hannibal Hamlin. 
 Public Expenditures— R. H. Dnell. 
 The Republican Party and tho Republican CaudidaUiliu'-tlie 
 
 Prcsidcncv— W. McKeo Dunn. 
 Tlio Republican Platform— E. G.Spaitlding. 
 Frauds in Naval Contracts— John Sherman. 
 The Rights of L;ibor— J. K. MoorUcad. 
 The Tariff— Seward and Cameron 
 
 Political Issues and Presidential Candidates- John Hickman. 
 
 Delivered in Philadcl])hia. 
 Principles and Purposes of the Republican Party — J. B. 
 
 Alley. 
 Slavery : What it was, what it has done, what it iUtouuB tc- 
 
 do — C. B. Tompkins. 
 Disorganization and Disunion — E. MjPherson. 
 
 Sixteen Pages, $1 per hundred. 
 
 Seizure of Arsenals at Harper's Ferry, Va., aud Liberty, 
 Jio. — Lyman Trumbull. 
 
 Property in Ihe Territories— B. F. Wade. 
 
 Truu Democracy— History Vindicated— C. H. Van Wyck. 
 
 Territorial Slave Code— H. AVihson. 
 
 Slavery in the Territories— John P. Hale. 
 
 " Posting the Books between the North and the South " — .T. 
 J. Peny. 
 
 Tho GJhoun Revolution — Its Basis and its Progress— J. R. 
 Doohttle. 
 
 The Republican Party the Result of Southern Aggreision — 
 C. B. Sedgwick. 
 
 Admission of Kansas — M.J. Parrott. 
 
 Federalism Unmasked — Daniel R. Goodloe. 
 
 The Slavery Question — C. C. AVashburu. 
 
 Tliomas Corvvin's (.'real Speech, Abridged. 
 
 The Issues- rue Dred Scott Decision — ^Thc Parties — Israel 
 Washburn, Jun. 
 
 TarHl— Samuel S. Blair. 
 
 The Rise and Fall of I he Democratic Party— K. P. Bingham. 
 
 lu Defence of the North and Northern Laborers— H. Hamiia. 
 
 Homesteads : The Republicans aud Settlers against Democ- 
 racy and Monopoly — A Tract. 
 
 Twenty-four Pages, $1.50 per hundred. 
 Tlie Ruin of the Democratic Party — the Reports of the Co- 
 
 vode antl other Committees — A Tract. 
 Slaverj' in tho Territories — Jacob CoUamcr. 
 
 Thirty-two Pages, $2 per hundred. 
 
 Thomas Corwin's (ireat Speech. 
 
 Succ'/s of the Calhoun Revolution : Tlie Constitution Changed 
 and' Slavery Nationalized by the Usurpations of tho Su- 
 preme Court — lames M. Ashley. 
 
 The Barbarism of Slavery — Charles Sumner. 
 
 GERMAN. 
 • Eight Pages, 50 cents per hundred. 
 
 The Demands of the South — Tho Republican l^ai'ty Viudi- 
 
 dicated— Abraham Lincoln. • 
 
 Free Homes for Free Men — 0. A. Grow. 
 Shall tho Terrilories be Africanized — .James Harlan. 
 AV'ho have Violaled Compromises — John Hickman. 
 The Homestead Bill— Its" Friends aud its Foes — W. Windom. 
 Iinugias and Popular Sovereignty — Carl Schiuz. 
 The Homestead Bill — .M. S. Wilkinson. 
 The Barbarism of Slaverj-— Owen Lovejoy. 
 Southern Soctioiiaiism — Jolm Hickman. 
 Kqiiality of Rights in tho Territories- Harrison G. Blake. 
 The Claims of Agriculture— Jolm Carey. 
 The Republican Party a Necessity— Cluirles F.Adams. 
 Mutual Interest of the l'";irmer and Manufacturer— Ciirey A. 
 
 Trimble. 
 Political Issues and Presidential Candidates— John Hickman. 
 
 Delivered in Philadelphia. 
 
 Sixteen Pages, $1 per hundred. 
 
 Seizure of tho Arsenals at Harper's Ferry, Va.,and Liberty, 
 Mo., and in Vindication of the RepubUcau Pai'ty — Lyinaa 
 Trumbull. 
 
 The State of the Country— W. H. Seward. 
 
 Lands for the Landless— A Tract. 
 
 Election of Spcaker—H. Wmtcr Da\a3. 
 
 Forty Pages, $2.50 per hundred. 
 The Barbarism of Slavery— Charles Sumner. 
 
 COMMITTEE —Preston King, N. Y., Chairman, J. W. Grimes, Iowa, L. F. S. Foster, Conn., on tfi^part of the Senate-; 
 John Covode, Pe^n. , Trmmrer,l G. Spkulding, N.\. , J. B. Alley, Mass. , David Kilgore, Ind. , J. L. N. Straiten, N. J. ,o« 
 tiiepartoflhe Eouie of lieps. 
 
 "• Address the Chairman, or GEORGE HARRINGTON, Seentary, 
 
 Washington, D. C. ....... 
 
 N 
 
\ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 895 901 2 
 
 r'