440 /'' \/ Wttatt f ;s$Me.$ and f residential SPEECH: OF THE HOi JOHN HICKMAN, DELIVERED IN Concert Hall, PMladelphia, July 24th, 1860. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. . Published under the Auspices of the Republican Central Club of San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO: TOWNE & BACON, PRINTERS, EXCELSIOR OFFICE. Ifo 126 Clay Street, corner of Sansome. iseo. fc 4-4-0 UL -~ OFFICERS OF THE Central Republican Club OF S-AJXT ZFIR-AJXTOISOO. President, WILLIAM SHERMAN. Recording Secretary, . s. Corresponding Secretary, IFl- F- Treasurer, ETJS Marshal, Vice Presidents, D. C. McRUER, GEO. C. WALLER, ALEX. CAMPBELL, JOSEPH WEED, A. T. LAWTON, H. C. SQUIRE, T. J. L. SMILEY, WM. H. CULVER, HENRY SELIGMAN, C. WEBB HOWARD, R. MORTON, ANDREW WALKER, WM. IRELAND, C. H. DEXTER, J. REGENSBURGER, GEORGE AMERIGE, H. J. ROGERS, C. S. HOBBS, N. C. LANE, JOHN SWETT, B. T. CHASE, H. A. SONTAG, F. G. E. TITTEL, P. W. SHEPHEARD. -a i SPEECH HON. JOHN HICKMAN. MR. HICKMAN said : MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : The intelligent voter will so shape his action as to make it conduce to the success of a principle, rather than the elevation of a num. He will feel this to be the more incumbent upon him at such a time as the present, when the tendencies of parties are more distinctly marked than in any pre- vious campaign. It will be my object, this evening, to endeavor to exhibit, in a distinct light, the dividing line between the political parties of the day, and to ascertain, if possible, what, in all probability, would be the effect, upon the coun- try, of the election of the respective candidates for the Presidency. *If this were a strife merely between individual men, it would possess but trifling importance, and I should not trouble you with either remark or suggestion. But as I regard the contest, the determination will soon be made, not alone as to our value in the confederacy, but as to the destiny of the nation itself. The policy of our Government is, in many respects, undefined. The more serious questions affecting us have but recently become topics of careful consideration. Our fathers were unable to foresee, during the formation of the Constitution, the greater embarrassments to which the future of the country was to be subjected, and consequently no provision was made against them. Subjects which distracted and divided them, in their deliberations, have lost much of their former consequence, and we seem to be more anxious to ascertain what they should have said further, than what they actually did say. Even the controversies in which we ourselves have been engaged within the last decade have been settled or lost sight of, and we are now about to enter into that conflict which is to define many of the most impor- tant powers of the Government, and to fix the character of the dominant institu- tions of the country. The propriety of re-eligibility to office, the exact relations between federal and local authority, the constitutionality of banks and internal improvements, the regulation of the currency, and the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, are no longer agitated ; and discussions upon them are only to be found in our past history, and in the fossil remains of extinct parties. It may in truth be said, that old things have passed away and all things have become new. There was a time, not very far back in the past, when slavery was universally admitted to be a wrong in se, unwise in practice, detrimental to both individuals and communities, and against the spirit and genius of our free system. Now, however, it is declared to be divine in its origin, the highest type of human civilization, and indispensable to the maintenance of a democratic republic. Formerly it was regarded as a condition to be constantly reduced, and finally to be extinguished. Now, on the contrary, the demand is urged that it shall be extended, and made controlling. Here I find the cause or source of the great political issue of the present. Shall slavery become a national institution and a governing power in the country, or shall it remain as the Constitution left it? This is not an inquiry pro- pounded by us, of the North, but forced upon us by our brethren of the South. They require an answer at our hands, and we cannot avoid response if we would. Silence upon our part, under the circumstances, could not be construed otherwise than as affirmative of their claims. I make the distinct avowal that slavery seeks the acquisition of all our new States, for two objects : first, to secure the value of slaves ; and second, to direct the powers of the Federal Government, " The irrepressible conflict," so frequently commented upon and denounced by the South, is constantly admitted and acted on by them. They are too astute as observers and sagacious as politicians not to know there is a necessary and unend- ing antagonism between liberty and slavery. If they thought differently there would be far more peace and harmony between the sections. It is their full appre- ciation of the struggle for the mastery which arms them for the conflict, and induces them to wrestle for the victory. There is no more evident fact than this, that the advocates of slavery seek its extension so as to limit the influence of the sentiment of freedom. We hate tyranny, and would prevent such a consumma- tion. They ask that all who toil shall be held as property be regarded, in the chaste language of an eloquent Senator, as " mud-sills." We believe that God created all men free, and imposed labor upon them for their advantage. Which hypothesis shall be proven true? We will see hereafter ! But knowing that the principles of justice are uniform and eternal, I presume to believe that those prin- ciples will prevail and human rights be maintained. I am not ignorant of the fact that those who suppose they may rightfully make merchandise of mothers and their children, seem to think they can shape the designs of Providence, and re-write the history of humanity, reversing everything our fathers thought, and for the mainte- nance of which they perilled life and honor. I must be pardoned for disagreeing with them, and protesting against such conclusions. The extension of negro slavery into the territories of the United States has become a settled policy of the Democratic party. This reality cannot be disguised, and ought not to be denied. It is easily accounted for. Unity of interest and unity of desire will always produce a perfect concentration of strength. The fortunes of the South have become completely identified with their peculiar domestic relations. By their harmony they have been enabled to govern the Democratic party, and thus far, to govern the country through the agency of that party. The vital force of that organization being in the South, and slavery propagandism regarded there as a necessity, it cannot be considered strange that the influence of the party should be so directed as to fortify doctrines most congenial to the supposed welfare of those who direct its machinery. To many it has seemed unaccountable that executive action and legislative and judicial proceedings should be so shaped, from year to year, as to strengthen the few at the expense of the great mass of our people. Let it no longer be regarded as a marvel or a mystery ; the responsibility of it rests with those Northern men in whom we have reposed our confidence and clothed with the garments of authority. Examine the recorded votes in your national Congress, and there learn why it is that Northern capital and labor are constantly borne down by the enormous weight of Southern exaction. When your reasonable requests are denied, I tell you, with earnestness and emphasis, it is because eight millions of men control eighteen millions through our representatives elected by a party pledged to interests adverse to ours. Slavery educates its statesmen in a high school under able professors. It teaches that the" Northern men are cowardly and that their ambition is linked with avarice ; and unfortunately for us, it has arguments to f,,r tily its faith. In half a century it may not be credited that less than a dozen men, trained under these circumstances, so alarmed a Pennsylvania President as to indu-.v hint to ivrivst a message, violate the plighted faith upon which he was elected, disgrace his native State, and degrade the. high office to which he had then but recently Urn elevated. And yet, not only this has been done almost within our presence, but the representatives of free constituencies have been induced to lend their aid to force servile labor into competition with that of the white man, and a s!a\v State into the sisterhood of independencies to throw the balance of power against their own people. Some of these are now not only respectable members of the Douglas church, but missionaries among the unbelieving and outside barbarians. I have some of them very distinctly in my recollection, and it would be quite refreshing to hear their remarks in laudation of popular sovereignty, such as they denied to Kansas, and in denunciation of Southern demands, to which they suc- cumbul as reluctantly as a thrice seduced damsel to her lover. I believe it was Mirabeau who said the presents of despotism are always dangerous;" he should ha vi 1 included, in his remark, the threat of the tyrant as well as his reward. The allegation that Southern combinations are formed for the purpose of coun- teracting opposition extremists, is a sheer false pretense, resortfnl to as a blind and a cheat. No fears ever sprung from such parentage. Slavery does not exist by legal enactment anywhere ; it is the child of force, and as the sentiment of the world is against it, it cannot live without the sustaining hand of power. Sur- rounded by an atmosphere of freedom it is necessarily unsafe, and statutory safe- guards and defenses become necessary. Vassalage and subjection never impress themselves, without violence, upon the natural man, whilst, on the contrary, the sentiment of freedom must forever disturb the subjects of a despotism. The South, to be safe, must, therefore, extend through and beyond all the countervailing influ- ences to which I have referred, and consequently, our frontier possessions must be captured. But as the inherent weakness of the South is not equal to this task, craft is resorted to to supply the needed assistance. Upon whom can this be more advantageously brought to bear than a President without courage, a judge without candor, or a legislator without integrity ? We are sold or betrayed hourly, and if we had not more forbearance than discretion we would terrify traitors. Millions of acres of fertile lands, every now and then, are filched from our industrial classes, who require them for the support and education of their families, to be turned into barren wastes, by those who have already blasted more than one-half of our soil as with an avalanche of fire. Factories and workshops are tottering in ruins, and families and neighborhoods left starving and in rags, because fostered industry is not required in that region where the laboring man has no rights which the owner of men is bound to respect. And ships rot at our wharves, and storehouses become but a rendezvous for idlers and vagrants, for the reason that uncompensated chattel sinews yield fruits more cheaply than compensated skill, and require no shield against the pauper products of Europe. If a change of the tariff laws were required by the South instead of the North, they could not fail of its accomplishment. In that case the President would advocate it with ardor, if not with sincerity, and our Sen- ators would again illustrate the fact of their truckling subjection to those who secretly abhor their baseness and infidelity. Our earnest wishes are not only con- stantly disregarded, but our prosperity is remorselessly paralyzed by our servants, without an audible murmur on our part ; and we are not much averse, as we have often proved, to conferring new leases of office upon such as deceive us, to afford them further opportunities for mischief. Does this seem unaccountable ? I suggest no, in view of the truth I have but just stated, that the party selecting them has its heart and brain in the South, and its obeying members, merely, in the North. The remedy for this shameless evil is as easy as it is simple. We need but imitate the example set us by those who have caused this condition of things. Concord and inflexibility of purpose will accomplish all we ask. Nothing else ever can or ever 6 will. We might as well expect a divided and discordant army, marshaled under opposing generals, to capture the powerful and thoroughly disciplined and guarded city, as for Northern rights and Northern honor to be sustained by men in the pay and keeping of those who would weaken and reduce us. In the ordinary business of life we never trust the faithless and dishonest ; I can imagine no reason for engaging such as sentinels over our entire fortunes. Just so long as our custom houses, post offices, navy yards and mints shall be stocked with thousands, selected virtually by those who are in banded opposition to us, and whose principal business, we are instructed to believe, is compounding politics with perfidy, it will be impos- sible to render our condition better than it is. These leper-yards must be cleansed. Their occupants load the air with a contagious corruption. Throughout their bodies and their souls, they bear the marks of the distemper with which the aristocratic pollulionist has touched them. I risk but little in saying, that at this very hour, this mighty phalanx, scattered throughout the eighteen Northern States, having a common and powerful bond of union, are devising measures to despoil our indus- trial classes, by confining them in densely crowded fields of labor, or forcing them to enter into competition and companionship with ignorant and brutalized bond- men. They all, yes all, have been brought to believe that the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence are but stereotyped lies; that the founders of the nation had but a sorry conception of inalienable rights ; that the Constitution which they framed was intended as an instrument of cruelty and crime ; and that the fairest feature of free republican association is a union of States peopled with the lowest grade of slaves. Am I right? What is the trouble against which we have to contend ? Is it not the steady influence of what may, with propriety be called political conspiracies to mislead the public mind, and taint the public heart ? Is it not an administration blackened with treachery, and crooked and tottering under the weight of its depravity, using all the patronage of office, and all the fascinations of position to utterly destroy us, by making the territories of the country but gar- risons for the enemies of freedom, and the labor of white men degrading and fruit- less, beyond the limits of the present States ? If I am in error, what is the correct interpretation of the political discords of the last six years ? I anticipate fully that my suggested mode of redress for existing abuses will be denounced as sectional ; to which I answer, if it be so, the antidote to a bane may be a bane itself, " similia similibus curantur." But its liability to the charge is denied. The real sectionalism is arrayed against us ; I do but counsel systematic and persistent resistance. In studies of the fundamental doctrines of our common charter, and in the dispensations of the favors of government, we should never know a North, a South, an East, or a West. My complaint is that others act as if they thought differently. I trust we shall always be able to command the exercise of such a patriotism and comity as to forever preclude us from aggression upon a sec- tion inferior to ours in every element of material strength and greatness. It can never be otherwise than dastardly to press upon the weak and sickly. It will be noticed that I have spoken of the Democratic party without reference to its present distractions. My reason for so doing is found in the opinion I enter- tain that these dissensions do not affect issues ; as neither branch indicates a disposi- tion to meet, fairly and openly, the great political problem of the times. In casting our votes we should be accurately informed as to their effect upon the policy we desire to see established. We should not be made instruments in the hands of any ambitious man, or in the hands of any combination of reckless and unscrupulous men ; to force an unnatural growth of slavery in the country, and to blast the hopes of our own people, contrary to what has heretofore been the understanding of the Constitution of the United States, and in palpable violation of what has been regarded a settled national policy. It should be a matter of stinging regret to us, if from our bearing in the present contest, we could be fairly charged hereafter with a violation of the principles we have long professed to cherish, or with having imposed any, the slightest, impediment in the pathway of a rational, well-grounded . and progressive liberty. The all-absorbing question now presented to the American citizen, for what will prove to be his ultimate decision, 1 have watched narrowly as it has risen into importance from year to year, and I think I know the opinions of the several Presi- dential candidates respecting it. I am not aware that the supporters of Mr. Brcckenridge attempt any conceal- ment as to his designs in case of his success. If they should desire to resort to pre- varication, they have- placed it entirely without their power by the frankness and bold- in-ss. and 1 had almost said, the recklessness of their declarations. He has been put forth, prominently, alike in speech and platform, as the Achilles of the armies of the South, and as the determined foe of free soil, free speech, and free men. He stands upon no single democratic sentiment, unless, indeed, what were regarded by all statesmen within the last fifteen years as the pretentious heresies of John C. Calhoun, can be so regarded. He so reads the teachings of the sages of the past, and their primary law, as to make it fruitless to attempt an exclusion of his peculiar and favorite institution from the organized territories ; and so as to make it indispensable that congresses, courts, and presidents should exercise all their ingenuity, and all their powers to fortify and sustain it there. Legislative action is to be invoked, judicial decrees had, executive fiats pronounced, navies equipped, and armies marshaled, to exclude forever every settler therefrom who will not bow down before the black god of his idolatrous worship. I appeal to you, Freemen, to know whether this is the democracy of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson. I appeal to you to know whether you have ever found anything in the annals of parties so insulting to the understanding, until within the lifetime of the youth who has not yet reached his majority. I appeal to you to know whether the honesty, intelligence, and unmixed blood of the offspring of northern mothers can ever accept an excuse for those who would endeavor to fasten such a ruler upon us. But we may congratulate ourselves that even official zeal can perceive no chance for Mr. Breckenridge's election. If there had ever been any, the recent stump speech of Mr. Buchanan would have effectually disposed of it. No amount of popularity would be able to stand against the encomiums of such an advocate. His midnight appeal can only be accounted for by supposing the " old public functionary " was unable to obliterate his ani- mosities towards " the young gentleman of Kentucky," and that his well-known craft suggested a speech as the readiest and least offensive means of destruction. Such suggestions are the more reasonable as it is not to be imagined that the gyved tenant of the White House should for a moment believe, after the investigations which have been had, and the exposures which have been made, such testimony as he volunteered could be otherwise than ruinous to any cause. The daring evinced by him on the occasion, was only equalled by his lack of self-respect, and his utter disregard of the circumstances by which he was surrounded, and which should have restrained him. Whatever conclusions may be drawn as to my estimate of Mr. Breckenridge's character as a politician, I can only say that my esteem for him is profound when brought into comparison with that which I entertain for his democratic competitor. There arc few, if any, living men concerning whom more has been said, and less really known, than Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. There are thousands, by far too many thousands, now sustaining him under the mistaken and delusive idea that he is directing his efforts to counteract the plans of the Southern democracy. This is a frightful hallucination, but a natural one, when we take into consideration the humiliating fact that all that devotion could do has been done, by those surrounding his person, to distort a true record, and to stamp a counterfeit character for him on the public mind. Viewing him as one of the most unsafe and treacherous of lead- ers, you will pardon me certain statements which it now seems necessary should be made, and the correctness of which, I presume, will not be impugned. I have not yet forgotten when, in the winter of 1855-6, during the first session of the thirty- 8 fourth Congress, the residents of Kansas, asseverating that the cardinal principle of the Nebraska-Kansas act had been wantonly and wickedly nullified, that fraud and violence, concocted in the blue-lodges of Missouri, had invaded their homes and imposed a foreign rule upon them for the purpose of forcing upon them institutions which they abhorred, and invoking the interposition of Congress in their behalf, the prided father of " untrammelled popular sovereignty " turned his back upon his violated child, and closed his ears, as in death, to complaints of outrage almost with- out a parallel in the civilization of the century. These despoiled pioneers, who had taken up their abode in the territory under the most solemn guarantees of self-gov- ernment, only asked to prove their accusation, arid to be relieved from oppression. In other words, they declared they had never been able to enjoy self-government, that they were ruled by invaders, and demanded the sovereignty conferred by law upon them. Mr. Douglas should have been the first man to fly to their relief ; and if he had been as completely dedicated to the principles of his bill, as some would make us believe, he would have urged investigation and carried it. So far from having done so, he put himself in the lead of those Senators most hostile to an exposition, and became the mere mouth-piece, advocate, and apologist of those engaged in the work of forcing slavery upon an unwilling people. He enjoyed at that time the full confidence of the South and his democracy was orthodox, because he was loyal to his task-masters ; willing to do battle for their most extrava- gant demands. He was then Chairman of the Committee on territories, and I call attention to his report, as such, made March 12, 1856, as conclusive upon the point I have stated. In that paper he could find nothing to say against foreign conspira- cies to invade the soil of Kansas and control elections, but he had much to offer in condemnation of eastern associations to encourage removal thither. He could dis- cover no irregularities in the return of Mr. Whitfield, the pro-slavery delegate to the House of Representatives, but he clearly discerned that the territorial legisla- ture was a legally-elected body, with perfect authority to enact the most cruel and arbitrary slave codes, and that the complaints of fraud and force were gotten up merely to stimulate and excite Northern emigration. At the time of which 1 speak, there was no one in Congress or out of Congress, in office or out of office, who exerted himself more untiringly to perpetuate that reign of terror inaugurated to insure the admission of Kansas into the Union as a slave state. I fear there are many now bearing up the banner inscribed with the name of this Senator, who never have fully understood, or who have forgotten this tarnished page in his his- tory. If there has ever been a more determined foe to the growth of freedom in Kansas, or to the principles of the Nebraska-Kansas bill than Stephen A. Douglas, he has been able to keep himself very much under cover. It is gratifying, however, to make a single remark in his favor it is this, that he seems as willing as the most ardent of his friends to divert attention from this period in his career. I am not aware that, in either essay or address, he has ventured to recur to it ; but on the contrary he seems disposed to treat it as a blank in his life. Whilst these proceedings were progressing in the Senate, the other branch of Con- gress carried resolutions of investigation under a close division of parties, and sent a select committee to the territory. The consequence was. such an exposure as sat- isfied the country not only of the truth of every thing charged, but of existing conspiracies beyond anything that had been imagined. The published evidence effectually revealed the intentions of the South, and made a deep impression on the North. It was then established that neither law nor proprieties were to be allowed to stand in the way of slavery extension ; and we are almost driven to the conclu- sion that the repeal of the Missouri Restriction was but a part of a general and well-matured plan of operations, at the head of which stood the self-crowned chief of popular territorial government. Mr. Douglas' term of office was now approaching its close. It is not unlikely that a desire for re-election, and a knowledge of the conviction forced upon his State by the examination alluded to, induced him to look with different eyes upon Kansas, and created an anxiety on his part to take up 9 the cause of her robbed and wretched people. I cannot certainly say how this may have been ; I only state a sudden and miraculous change came over him, and for a while he seemed to glory in the name of "rebel." He opposed the admission of Kansas under the L'rnmpton constitution, with seeming seriousness, and then an- nounml his determination to vote for the greater iniquity, the " English Bill." It was then the honored and heroic Harris, who now sleeps in death, shed tears of anguish, ami gave utterance to his despair. Over this again the veil has been care- fully a:ul closely drawn by the guardians of Mr. Douglas' fame. His admirers have lu-ti'-d wisely, as it has prevented, doubtless, many unpleasant surmises and sugges- tions. To that boldest, and truest, and greatest of all the warriors in the battle for the right, David C. Broderick, is Mr. Douglas indebted for his rescue from a whirlpool which would certainly have engulphed him from a stain which would have obliterated his heroism in connection with the cause to which he has so ostentatiously professed to devote himself. I withhold the words in which the scathing rebuke was clothed. And yet this noblest and most self-sacrificing of men, Mr. Douglas' protector, the martyr to truth, who in the fullness of his heart, and on his dying couch exclaimed, " they have killed me, they have murdered me, because I was opposed to the extension of slavery, and a corrupt administration " upon his return home, and in the hour of his sternest trial, when fighting, like Spartacus, upon his bended knees, against the pensioned hordes of the present dynasty, and at a time when he had a right to expect all possible aid from the man whose interest he had made his own, found all the sympathies of Mr. Douglas extended to his opponents, and himself treated as an enemy and an outcast. If we would respect the memory of Broderick, we can never support Douglas ; it would be a mark of baseness and servility. If ever there was a true son of the North, inhumanly broken in spirit, and who had reason to exclaim, " save me from my friends," that man was David C. Broderick. Had Stephen A. Douglas but discharged the duty he sacredly owed him, he would have gained a victory for freedom in California, and would to-day, in my opinion, be living in the land, and acknowledged as one of the foremost men in the republic. He laid down his life to attest his sincerity ; many who professed to love him, will, in wild revel and reckless exultation, utter the name of him who could not find time or opportunity to speak a word in eulogy over the grave of the departed votary. Inscribe the name of Broderick in fiery characters upon your banners he was your champion and you at least can afford to do him justice. He rests in peace on the hights of the proud city of the Pacific, where no ingrati- tude can longer wound him ; relieved from the warfare between heartless factions, and where his ashes will remain an eternal memento of his faith, and his confidence in the ultimate triumph of a down-trodden humanity. These references have been made for a single purpose to satisfy, if doubts exist, that in the great struggle between the South and the North, to secure the long lost equality of the latter, Mr. Douglas is against us. Should more recent evidences be demanded, then let an examination be made of the Congressional Globe containing the ballots for Speaker and Clerk during the last session of the House of Repre- sentatives. Ascertain what the action of the Illinois, western, and north-western Democracy was during the protracted contest for an organization. Every vote that Mr. Douglas could influence was invariably cast for such candidates as the South presented, including those of the most extreme and revolutionary character. He could afford no assistance to any one not recognized by the propagandists as orthodox upon all questions which concerned them. And I very well remember when the name of Col. Forney was mentioned in connection with the office he now occupies, and his fate was to be decided, how diligently " the great advocate of pop- ular sovereignty " labored for his defeat ; every devotee of Mr. Douglas voting against him, with one exception. Mr. Morris, of Illinois, in whom I have very great confidence, declined to vote at all. Col. Forney, who never hesitated to ad- vance the fortunes of Mr. Douglas, when he could properly do so, was elected in spite of Mr. Douglas. Col. Forney, I presume, was not endorsed by the Democracy 10 who swear by the peculiar institution. Others may choose to forget all this, and will not criminate them for doing so, but I promise never to forget it. I am fot my friends, and against those who oppose my friends. If I am wrong in this, le charity be extended to me I cannot help it. I have said all I desire to say of the Representatives of the two Democracies. There is a preference between them. The one is out-spoken and evident ; the other is concealed and tricky. Of the two, I much prefer Mr. Breckenridge, and yet I cannot imagine the circumstances under which I could be induced to support him. He asserts the Supreme Court has decided that slavery is an existing constitutional institution in all our territories, and that it is the duty of the government to sus- tain it where it thus legally exists. Mr. Douglas contends the Courts have not yet so decided, but if they shall do so, it will then become the duty of all good citizens to respect the decision, and of every branch of the federal government to enforce it with promptness and fidelity. This is his platform. If our Federal Court has not already given a decision in accordance with the notions of Mr. Breckenridge, no one doubts it will do so as soon as the question shall be brought distinctly before it. So at best the only point of disagreement between these rival candidates is, that of time only. If, in the language of the resolution adopted by the convention placing Mr. Douglas in nomination, and just partly quoted, it becomes the duty of all good citizens to respect, and of every branch of the federal government to enforce, a judicial decision determining the constitutional existence of slavery in our terri- tories, what becomes of that other theory of Mr. Douglas, that no matter what the Supreme Court may decide, slavery may be excluded from a territory hy unfriendly legislation ? Those advocating the claims of Mr. Bell would please everybody by promising nothing. They compose the party of extreme faith. They stand upon a Constitu- tion without interpretation, and upon an endangered Union without announcing the means by which it can be saved. Let us not be deceived ! There are but two doctrines between which we can choose when we come to deposit our ballots. One is, that the Constitution favors slavery as fully as freedom ; that neither has advantage over the other ; that they must travel together, and exist together, under equal protection, until the territory shall be clothed with State sovereignty ; and that both alike are national. The other is, that the Constitution treats slavery as a local municipal institution ; does not give to it a single attribute of nationality ; that it has not an equal status with freedom ; and that its extension is to be discouraged. How shall we act between these opposing views? I answer the inquiry I Our laboring classes deserve all the encouragement and protection we can give them ; Southern statesmen regard them as white slaves ; let us not surrender them to such mercies as the owners of chattel labor would extend to them. Our farmers and manufacturers have long been cut off from all the bounties of legislation, by the force of Southern prejudice ; we should enlist on their side. Our country has suffered much in the estimation of mankind, from our manifested attachment to a system notoriously in contradiction to the principles upon which our government was founded ; considerations of moral- ity, expediency, and consistency should incline us to do all that we lawfully may do, to save ourselves from further imputations. Slavery within the States stands behind impregnable defenses, but it holds no charter to travel without restraint. It has long labored for, but has not yet reached, a position of absolutism. It grasps for empire, as it is the only means by which tyranny can ever save itself. Our danger is imminent, but we can yet overcome it, if we allow reason, rather than preju- dice, to shape our efforts. Democracy, as now interpreted by those loudest in the profession of it, and almost monopolizing its name, no longer means the will of the majority ; it contemns the masses ; holds no association with labor ; and utters no word of encouragement to the poor. Its professions are impostures, and must soon fail to deceive. It has become worse than the ally of slavery ; it is its pliant and 11 prostituted tool. Wisdom and propriety must alike repudiate it, unless speedily ivr -m -rated. Our true policy is that of resistance to the extravagant and unconstitutional demands of the South. We can only make it effectual in one way by the support of Mr. LINCOLN. He is honest and capable, and attached to the principles of the Con- stitution ; and his election will assign limits to sectional oligarchy, and make labor honorable and remunerative. The question, in its true aspect, is not as to which candidate should be elected by the people ; it is this shall Mr. Lincoln be elected ? The one hundred and twenty electoral votes of the south will be divided mainly, if not exclusively, between Mr. Bell and Mr. Breckenridge, and their support will be almost, if not entirely, confined to that section. Such effective force as Mr. Douglas may possess, is in the North ; but his most sanguine friends admit, not only that his election is impossible, but that he cannot carry over two or three States. The body of the Northern vote will be given to Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Douglas' supporters can do nothing for him ; the only significant result they can possibly produce, will be to withdraw enough strength from Mr. Lincoln to throw the election into the House. This done, and Lane would certainly be chosen by the Senate the condition of parties in the House being such as to prevent a majority of the States agreeing to either of the candi- dates. Resting on these admissions, for they are accepted universally, we discover that every vote given to Mr. Douglas must tend to the elevation of Lane, who, pos- sessing neither education, experience, nor executive ability, has been selected to enable the South to make the most out of an accident, in case it shall occur. To out-Lane Lane in apostacy to the North, and in crouching, fawning subserviency to the South, need not be attempted by the most ambitious in that line not even by a Federal office-holder. Even if I could believe that the leopard could change his spots, and Mr. Douglas do the North justice, I would not sustain him, under the circumstances which surround us, and amid the perils which now environ us. 1 have not attempted a speech. My purpose has been to talk plainly. I may have been unfortunate in succeeding too well in this respect. Feeling as I do, and knowing the vast importance of the canvass upon which we are just entering, I could not be less distinct in my expressions. Immense, inappreciable consequences depend upon the decision we are about to make. We should tremble when we fear that those most interested in the present and the future, the frugal artizan and laborer, may fail to comprehend them. But let us hope, citizens, that we are so far right as to be able to expect the favor of Almighty God throughout our trials, and that He will continue to bless the Republic, until it shall become a proper example to the nations of the earth, and a blessing to universal man ! THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States, in Convention assembled, in the discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations : 1. That the history of the nation during the last four years fully establishes the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the Republican party ; and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. 2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution, " That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our Republican institu- tions, and that the Federal Constitution, the Rights of the State, and the Union of the States, must and shall be preserved. 3. That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, its rapid augmenta- tion of wealth, its happiness at home and its honor abroad ; and we hold in abhor- rence all schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may ; and we congratulate the country, that no Republican member of Congress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often made by Democratic members, with- out rebuke and with applause from their political associates ; and we denounce these threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as denying the vital principles of a free Government, and as an avowal of contem- plated treason, which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence. 4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is jessential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends ; and we denounce the law- 13 less invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under whatever pretext, as amongst the gravest of crimes. 5. That the present Democratic Administration has far exceeded our worst appre- hensions, in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as esjH-cially evinced in its desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Con- stitution upon the protesting people of Kansas ; in construing the personal relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified property in persons ; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the Federal Courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest ; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people. fttnenort 6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extravagance which per- vades every department of the Federal Government ; that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to arrest the systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored partisans ; while the recent startling developments of fraud and corruption at the Federal Metropolis, show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded. 7. That the new dogma, that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contempora- neous exposition, and with legislative and judicial precedent ; is revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. 8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom ; that as our Republican fathers, when they abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that " no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law," it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it ; and we deny the authority of Congress, of Territorial Legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. 9. That we brand the recent re-opening of the African trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against human- ity, and a burning shame to our country and age ; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that execra- ble traffic. 10. That in the recent vetoes, by their Federal Governors, of the acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Democratic principles of non-interven- tion and popular sovereignty, embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demon- stration of the deception and fraud involved therein. 11. That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by her people, and accepted by the House of Representatives. 12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts 14 as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country ; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working- men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufac- turers an adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. 13. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the free homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or suppliants for public bounty, and we demand the passage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already passed the House. 14. That the National Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws, or any State legislation by which the rights of citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired ; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 15. That the appropriations by Congress for River and Harbor Improvements of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 16. That a Railroad to the Pacific ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country ; that the Federal Government ought to render imme- diate and efficient aid in its construction ; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily Overland Mail should be promptly established. 17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however differing on other questions, who substan- tially agree with us in their affirmance and support. FIRST PREMIUM AGAIN! BEING THE RECEIVED R. H. VANCE!, Corner of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets, Having again received the FIRST PREMIUM awarded at the State Fair for the BEST AMBROTYPES and PHOTOGRAPHS, it is guaranteed that all who favor me with a call are sure to obtain better work than can be produced at any other rooms in the State. I would say to my patrons that I am now producing better work than ever, _A.t Grreatly IfcecLuced. I?:rices 5 to conform to the times. Having reduced my prices more than thirty per cent., no one need hereafter go to second-rate establishments, on account of prices. Instructions given in the Art, and Stock furnished. Having over 320,000 worth of Cameras, Glass, Plates, Cases and Chemicals on the way, I shall* hereafter dispose of them at about New York Prices. "UNCLE ABE" IS 'ROUND!!! Republican Songster, CONTAINING NUMEROUS IRREPRESSIBLE SONGS, ADAPTED TO POPULAR TUNES, And far superior for general singing to those contained in the Eastern Editions. 16 pp. Six Dollars per Hundred. ADDRESS THE PUBLISHER, ROB'T E. O. STEARNS, JTo. 125 Clay Street, TERMS, CASH, SAN FEANCISCO Kearny St., New Building, 3d door north of Clay, lower side of Plaza. GEO. W. CHAPIN & GO'S FIND EMPLOYMENT FOR AND SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF HELP, JHen and Wires for Farms, Hotels and Families, House Servants, Stewards, Farm Hands, Day Laborers, Lumbermen, Machinists, Cooks, Coachmen, Gardeners, Laundresses, Sawyers, Moulders, Seamstresses, Grooms, Florists, Teamsters, Blacksmiths, Carpenters, Boot-makers, Harness-makers, Book-keepers, Teachers, Engineers, Porters, Miners, Laborers. Gas Fitters, Clerks, Salesmen, Bakers, Confectioners, Shipsmiths, Locksmiths, Coppersmiths, Gunsmiths, Metal Turners, Wood Turners, Boiler Makers, Finishers, Coopers, Painters, Sail Makers, Marble Cutters, Masons, Bricklayers, Plasterers, Millers, Brewers, Jewelers, Engravers, Tailors. Brick Makers, Hostlers, Butchers, Dairymen, et., etc. Chinese (Jeoks and Laborer* supplied. ALSO, IN CONNECTION WITH THE ABOVE DBST'-A.TES RENTING OF HOUSES, STORES, &c. Agents tor Purchasing, Selling and Leasing Farms, Ranches, &c. ; City Property, of every Description, Bought, Sold, or Exchanged; Bills Collected, Money Loaned on Collateral Security; Goods Bought on Commission, E TO. PEESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 1860. "LIBERTY AND UNION." C 1 X* O 12. 1 1 1 O tliO ID O O "UL JOOL O H. t 2 The subscriber herewith commences the publication of a series of Republican documents, under the auspices of the Republican State Central Committee, also of the Republican Central Club of San Francisco, and respectfully solicits the influence of every patriotic Republican, to extend their circulation. ROB'T 3E2. C. STEARNS, SAN FRANCISCO. Send your orders to DR. RABE, Secretary State Central Committee, or to M. S. WHITING, Secretary Republican Central Club, or the PUBLISHER. Philadelphia Speech, $4 per hundred; per thousand $3O. .X