THE 
 
 REPUBLICAN PARTY; 
 
 ITS ORIGIN, NECESSITY AND PERMANENCE. 
 
 SPEECH OF 
 
 Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 YOUNG MEN’S REPUBLICAN UNION OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 JULY 11th., 18 GO. 
 
 FE0 4 132 4 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of New York :—Of 
 ail men in our history, there arc two whose 
 influence at this moment is most peculiar. 
 Though dead, they y£t live, speak and act 
 In the conflict of principle which divides 
 the country—standing face to face like two 
 well-matched champions. When I add 
 that one was from South Carolina, and the 
 other from Massachusetts, you will see at 
 once that I mean John C. Calhoun and 
 John Quincy Adams. 
 
 Statesmen both of long career, of marked 
 ability, and of unblemished integrity—act¬ 
 ing together at first—sitting in the same 
 cabinet which they quitted—one to be¬ 
 come Vice-President, and the other Pres¬ 
 ident, then for the remainder of their days 
 battling in Congress and dying there— 
 each was a leader in life, but each has be¬ 
 come in death a grander leader still. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun possessed an intellect of 
 much originality and boldness, and, though 
 wanting in the culture of a scholar^ made 
 himself felt in counsel and in debate. 
 
 ju.au spun 
 
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 To native powers unlike, but not inferior, 
 Mr. Adams added the well ripened fruits 
 of long experience in foreign lands, and or 
 studies more various and complete than 
 those of any public man in our history 
 besides an indomitable will, and that spirit 
 of Freedom which inspired his 
 when in the Continental Congresj 
 eloquently maintained the Declai 
 Independence, making himself its " Colos¬ 
 sus” on that floor. 
 
 Sitting together in the Cabinet of Mr. 
 Munroe, they concurred in sanctioning the 
 Prohibition of Slavery in the Missouri 
 Territory as constitutional, and so ad¬ 
 vised the President. But here the di¬ 
 vergence probably began—tftough for a 
 long time it was not made manifest. The 
 diary of Mr. Adams shows that at that 
 early day, when slavery had been little 
 discussed, he saw its enormity with in¬ 
 stinctive quickness, and described it with 
 corresponding force. The record is less 
 full with regard to Mr. Calhoun; but 
 
 • # 
 
when in later life they re-appeared, one in 
 the Senate, and the other in the House of 
 Representatives, each openly assumed the 
 position by which he will be known in 
 history—one as the leader in all the preten¬ 
 sions of Slavery and of slave-masters, and 
 the other as the champion of Freedom 
 Mr. Calhoun regarded Slavery as a per¬ 
 manent institution ; Mr. Adams regarded 
 it as something transitory Mr. Calhoun 
 vaunted it as a form of civilization; Mr. 
 Adams scorned it as an unquestionable 
 barbarism. Mr. Calhoun did not hesitate 
 to call it the most stable basis for fre 
 government; Mr. Adams vehemently de¬ 
 nounced it as a curse, Full of weakness 
 and mockery and > doubly offensive in a 
 boastful Republic. Mr. Calhoun, not con¬ 
 tent with thus exalting Slavery, proceeded 
 to condemn the early opinions of Wash¬ 
 ington and Jefferson as “folly and delu¬ 
 sion/’ to assail the self-evident truths of 
 the Declaration of Independence as “ ab¬ 
 surd,and then to proclaim that human 
 beings are property under the Constitu 
 tion. and as such, may be transported into 
 erritories and there held in Slavery ; 
 
 nist opinions of these two chiefs. Never 
 was great conflict destined to involve 
 a great country more distinctly foresha¬ 
 dowed All that the Republican party 
 now opposes may be found in John C. 
 Calhoun. All that the Republican party 
 now maintains may be found in John 
 Quincy Adams. Choose ye, fellow citi¬ 
 zens, between the two. 
 
 The rule of ‘ Principles, and not men” 
 is hardly applicable to a man whose life 
 now bears the sacred seal of death, and 
 whose name is the synonym of principle , 
 yet I do not hesitate to say that our cause 
 is best appreciated in its precise objects 
 and aims. Proud as we may be to tread 
 where John Quincy Adams leads the way, 
 there is a guide of more commanding au¬ 
 thority found in the eternal law of Right, 
 and the concurring mandate of the Con¬ 
 stitution itself when properly interpreted, 
 which teaches the duties of a good citizen. 
 Such is the guide of the Republican party 
 which, 1 say fearlessly, where most known, 
 will be most trusted, and which, when 
 understood in its origin, will be seen to be 
 no accidental or fugitive organization. 
 
 v Adams added to the glory of his ; merely for an election, but an irresistible 
 
 no essity, whfch in the nature of things 
 must be as permanent as the pretensions, 
 moral and political, which it seeks to con¬ 
 strain and counteract. 
 
 0 
 
 Let us dwell, then, on the Republican 
 party, its Origin, its Necessity, and its 
 Permanence : 
 
 All must admit that if no Republican 
 party existed now—even if that halcyon 
 day so often promised by cajoling politi¬ 
 cians had come, when the Slavery Ques¬ 
 tion was settled—still there would be a 
 political necessity for a great party of Op¬ 
 position to act as a check on the Adminis¬ 
 tration A kindred necessity was once 
 expressed by an eminent British sta-tes- 
 
 diversifled career, by persistent 
 efforts, which are better for his fame than 
 having been President—upholding the 
 great rights of petition and of speech, 
 vindicating the early opinions of the Fa 
 thers, and the self-evident truths of the 
 Declaration of Independence; exposing 
 the hateful character of Slavery; insist 
 mg upon its prohibiton in the Territories; 
 denying the asserted property in man, 
 and especially and often exhibiting the 
 unjust power m the National Government. 
 
 usurped by what he called “ the little 
 
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 cluster” of slave-masters, whose yoke was 
 to him intolerable 
 
 Such, most briefly told, were the antago 
 

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 man, wlio gave as a toast, “ A strong 
 Administration and a strong Opposition.” 
 Parties are unknown in despotic countries. 
 They belong to the machinery of free 
 governments. Through parties, public 
 opinion is concentrated and directed, 
 Through parties, principles are maintained 
 above men. And through parties, men in 
 power are held to a just responsibility. 
 But if ever there was occasion for such 
 a party, it is now, when the corruptions 
 of the Administration have been dragged 
 to light by recent Committees of Congress. 
 On this ground alone, good men might be 
 summoned to rescue the Government of 
 our country. 
 
 It is now an attested fact that Mr. Bu¬ 
 chanan became President through corrup¬ 
 tion. Money, familiarly known as a “ cor¬ 
 ruption fund/’ first distilled in small drip¬ 
 pings from clerks and petty officials, was 
 swollen by the larger contributions of 
 merchants and contractors, and with this 
 accumulation votes were purchased in 
 Philadelphia, enough to turn the election 
 in that great metropolis, and in the chain 
 of cause and effect, to assure the triumph 
 of the Democratic candidate. I speak 
 now only what has been proved. Fraudu¬ 
 lent naturalization papers_ in blank, by 
 which this was perpetrated, have been 
 produced before a Committee of Congress. 
 It was natural that an Administration thus 
 corrupt in origin, should continue to exer¬ 
 cise power through the same corruption 
 by which power was gained; but nothing 
 else % than that insensibility to acts of 
 shame, which is bred by familiarity, can 
 explain how all this should be done with 
 such absolute indecency of exposure— 
 wearing scarcely so much as a fig-leaf. 
 
 A letter from a local politician, addressed 
 to the ^President himself, urging without 
 disguise the giving of a .large contract for 
 
 3 
 
 machinery to a particular house in Phila¬ 
 delphia, employing 450 mechanics, with a 
 view to the approaching election, was sent 
 to the Secretary of the Navy, with this 
 indorsement, in a well-known hand-wri¬ 
 ting, signed by well-known initials, “ Sept. 
 15, 1858. The inclosed letter from Col. 
 Patterson of Philadelphia is submitted 
 to the attention of the Secretary of the 
 Navy. J. B.” Thus did the President 
 of the United States, in formal written 
 words, now of record in the history of 
 the country, recommend the employment 
 of the public money, set apart for the 
 public service, to influence an election. 
 Here Was corruption as positive as when 
 his supporters purchased votes in the 
 streets. From one, learn all; and from 
 such a characteristic instance, learn the 
 charac ter of the Administration. But there 
 are other well-known instances; and the 
 testimony before the Congressional Com¬ 
 mittees discloses the President on Sundays 
 in secret conclave with one of his corrupt 
 agents, piously occupied in discussing the 
 chances of an election, and how its expen¬ 
 ses were to be met, while, at th<4Mkm4l 
 time, like another Joseph SurfacA 
 uttering in public fine sentimenfs ^*po- 
 litical morality, and lamenting the preva¬ 
 lence of the very indecencies in which he 
 was engaged. 
 
 It was natural that a President, who 
 with professions of purity on the lips, made 
 himself the pander of such vulgar cor¬ 
 ruption, should stick at nothing needed to 
 carry his purposes. I shall not dwell on 
 the Lecompton Constitution; but it be¬ 
 longs to this chapter. You all know its 
 wickedness. Concocted originally at Wash¬ 
 ington, with the single purpose of fasten¬ 
 ing Slavery upon the people of Kansas, it 
 was by execrable contrivance so arranged 
 as to prevent the people, when about to 
 
 
 V? 
 
 
4 
 
 become a State, from voting on that ques¬ 
 tion. Next, sanctioned by a convention of 
 usurpers, who in no respect represented 
 the people of Kansas ; then fraudulently 
 submitted to the people for their votes, it 
 was fraudulently adopted by stuffing bal¬ 
 lot-boxes on a scale never before known 
 —thus at the Delaware Crossing, where 
 there were but forty-three legal voters, 
 400 were returned; at Oxford, where 
 there were but forty-two legal voters, 1,000 
 were returned; and at Shawnee, where 
 there were but forty legal voters, 1,200 
 were returned. And yet this Constitution, 
 disowned by the very Governor who had 
 gone to Kansas as the agent of the Presi¬ 
 dent—rotten with corruption—gaping with 
 fraud—and steaming with iniquity, was at 
 once recognized by the President, urged 
 upon Congress in his Annual Message, and 
 pressed for adoption by all the appliances 
 of unprincipled power. If the words of 
 Jugurtba, turning his back upon Pome, 
 cannot be repeated, that all had a price, it 
 was not from any forbearance in the Presi¬ 
 de nt^ A single editor was offered the 
 
 • iiltaij.^ of the Post-Office blanks, worth 
 lea$t &80,000, upon the condition that 
 he ^rould, by an editorial no larger than 
 a man’s hand, promise subserviency to the 
 Administration. Bribes of office were 
 added to bribes of money. As the votes 
 of electors had already been purchased to 
 make Mr. Buchanan President, ‘the votes 
 of Representatives were now solicited to 
 carry out his scheme of corruption, and 
 the halls of Congress were changed into a 
 political market-house, where men were 
 bought by the head. Is not all this enough 
 to arouse the indignation of the people *? 
 
 It is true that the President, whose 
 power began in corruption, and who is the 
 responsible author of the corruption by 
 w'hich his administration has been de¬ 
 
 based, is no longer a candidate for office. 
 Already judgment has begun. His own 
 political party has discarded him. The 
 first avenging blow has been struck. In¬ 
 corruptible history will do the rest. The 
 tablet conspicuously erected in Genoa to 
 expose the crimes of Doges, branding one 
 as Fur Magnus and the other as Maxi- 
 7nus LatronuTn, Will not be needed here. 
 The exposed corrupter, the tyrant ensla¬ 
 ver, and the robber of Human Freedom, 
 cannot be forgotten. Unhappy President! 
 After a long career of public service, not 
 only tossed aside, but tossed over to per¬ 
 petual memory as an example to be 
 shunned. Better for him the oblivion of 
 common life than the bad fame which he 
 has won ’ 
 
 But, though not himself a candidate for 
 office, his peculiar supporters, animated 
 by hi3 spirit, linked with him in all his 
 misrule, are embodied as a party, and ask 
 your votes. Simply to resist this combi¬ 
 nation. and to save the Republic from its 
 degrading influence, would justify the for¬ 
 mation of the Republican party ; and I 
 doubt not that there are many who will be 
 content to unite with us on this ground 
 alone, anxious to put the National Govern¬ 
 ment once again in pure hands. To all 
 such, welcome ! 
 
 While this consummation necessarily 
 enters into the present purposes of the 
 Republican party, while we naturally be¬ 
 gin by insisting upon purity in the Gov¬ 
 ernment, and make this one of our urgent 
 demands, it iff obvious that the quickening 
 impulse of the party, is to be found in other 
 purposes, which cannot pass away in a single 
 election. The Republican party seeks to 
 overthrow the Slave Oligarchyin the Nation¬ 
 al Government, and especially at this mo¬ 
 ment to stay its aggressions in the Territo¬ 
 ries, which, through a corrupt interpreta- 
 
 
5 
 
 tion of the Constitution, it threatens to 
 barbarize with Slavery. But all who seek 
 purity in the National Government must 
 unite in this purpose ; for only by the 
 overthrow of this corrupt Oligarchy, which 
 beginning in the denial of all human rights, 
 necessarily shows itself in barbarism and 
 corruption of all kinds, can a better order 
 of things prevail. It is out of slavery that 
 all our griefs proceed ; nor can the cor¬ 
 ruptions of the present Administration be 
 fully comprehended without considering 
 the nature of this Evil and its chronic in¬ 
 fluence over our Government, reaching 
 everywhere by subtle agencies or more 
 subtle far-reaching example, but still in 
 itself the original and all-sufficient activi¬ 
 ty. As well attempt to explain the Gulf 
 Stream without the Gulf of Mexico, or the 
 origin of evil without the human heart, as 
 attempt to explain the present degraded 
 character of our National Government 
 without Slavery. As well attempt to 
 enact the play of Othello without the 
 Moor. And permit me to say that our 
 warfare with these corruptions will be 
 feeble unless we attack them in their 
 origin. 
 
 o 
 
 The subject is so vast that I can under¬ 
 take to expose it by glimpses only. 
 
 At the beginning ot our history, Slavery 
 was universally admitted to be an Evil.—- 
 Nobody then so hardy as to vindicate it. 
 In the Convention which framed the Con¬ 
 stitution, it was branded as “ a nefarious 
 institution/’ or more mildly called simply 
 “ wrongand these generous voices came 
 from the South as well as from the North. 
 Out of the Convention there was a similar 
 accord. I shall not quote the words of 
 Washington, Jefferson/ or Franklin, or 
 Jay, for they are familiar to all. But as 
 they spoke others spoke, and I might oc¬ 
 cupy the whole evening simply in recit¬ 
 
 ing this testimony. Nor were these dec¬ 
 larations confined to men in public life.— 
 The Colleges all, by special action, array¬ 
 ed themselves against Slavery, especially 
 the University of William and Mary, in 
 Virginia, which conferred upon Granville 
 Sharpe, the acknowledged chief of British 
 Abolitionists, the honorary degree of Doc¬ 
 tor of Laws. The Literature of the land, 
 such as it was, agreed with the Colleges. 
 The Church, too, added its powerful voice; 
 and here, amid the diversities of religious 
 faith, we hail that unity of spirit which 
 animated all. Quakers, Methodists, Pres¬ 
 byterians, and Congregationalists, seemed 
 almost to have vied with each other in 
 this pious testimony. 
 
 The Constitution was adopted, but the 
 word “slave” was not allowed to pollute 
 its text; and this was in declared defer¬ 
 ence to the prevailing opinion, which re¬ 
 garded Slavery as temporary, destined 
 soon to pass away. All looked forward to 
 this glad day, which seemed to be almost 
 at hand. In harmony with this expe^fcr 
 tion, Slavery was prohibited in all the 
 isting territories of the Union, so that when 
 Washington, as first President of the Uni¬ 
 ted States, at his inauguration here in 
 New York, took his first oath to support 
 the Constitution, the flag of the Bepublie 
 nowhere on the land within the jurisdic¬ 
 tion of Congress covered a single slave. 
 
 O O 
 
 Little then did the Fathers dream that 
 the Evil which they regarded with shame 
 and which they exerted themselves to pro¬ 
 hibit, would elevate its obscene crest, as 
 it now does, and flaunt its obscene preten¬ 
 sions before the world. Little did they 
 dream that the Constitution, from which 
 they had carefully excluded the very word 
 would, in defiance of reason and of com¬ 
 mon sense, be held to protect the thing , 
 so exceptionally that it could not be 
 
6 
 
 reached by Congressional prohibition, even 
 within Congressional jurisdiction. Little 
 did they dream that the text, which they 
 left so pure and healthful, would, through 
 corrupt interpretation, be swollen into 
 such a hideous Elephantiasis. 
 
 Two circumstances, civilizing in them¬ 
 selves, have exercised an unexpected in¬ 
 fluence for American Slavery; first, the 
 abolition of the slave-trade, which by taking 
 away the supply has increased the value 
 of slaves ; and secondly, the increased cul¬ 
 tivation of cotton stimulated by the inven¬ 
 tion of new machinery. The last has been 
 of especial moment. Indeed it is hardly 
 too much to say, that out of this slender 
 cotton fibre have been formed the manacles 
 of the slave. Thus, through sinister ac¬ 
 tivity, and the wickedness of men, is good 
 made the minister of wrong’. Next after 
 Christopher Columbus, who, by his sub¬ 
 lime enterprise, opened the pathway to the 
 New World, Eli Whitney, who discovered 
 the cotton gin, has been indirectly and 
 
 • onsciously a chief agent in the bondage 
 he African race on the North American 
 continent; and surely a proper gratitude 
 fipr the advantages which we enjoy in such 
 large store from these two discoveries 
 must prompt us to increased activity for 
 the welfare of those who, alas! have been 
 such losers, where we have been such 
 gainers. 
 
 This change of opinion, so disastrous in 
 its results, was gradual. Though easily 
 detected in its successive stages, by the 
 careful inquirer, it did not become mani¬ 
 fest to the whole country till 1820, when 
 it burst forth in the Missouri question 
 Then for the first time Slavery openly 
 showed itself violent, insolent, belligerent. 
 Freedom was checked, but saved some¬ 
 thing by a compromise—called at the mo¬ 
 ment of its adoption, by Charles Pinckney 
 
 of South Carolina, “ a triumph of the 
 South,” where in consideration of the ad¬ 
 mission of Missouri as a Slave State—thus 
 securing an additional preponderance to 
 the Slave Power—it was stipulated that 
 Slavery should be prohibited in certain 
 outlying territory, at that time trodden 
 only by savages. Then came a lull, du¬ 
 ring which the change was still at work, 
 until cotemporancous with the abolition of 
 Slavery in the British West Indies, the 
 discussion was lighted anew. Meanwhile 
 slaves had augmented in price and slave 
 masters had become more decided in 
 opinion. At first in timid deference to 
 the world, they ventured on no defense of 
 Slavery in the abstract; but at last, bold¬ 
 er grown under the lead of Mr. Calhoun, 
 they threw aside all reserve, openly 
 assailed the opinions of the Fathers, auda¬ 
 ciously denied the self-evident truths of 
 the Declaration of Independence, and by 
 formal resolution asserted the new dogma 
 of Slavery in the Territories. This was as 
 late as 1847. A letter from Mr. Calhoun of 
 that dav, addressed to a member of the 
 Alabama Legislature, shows that there was 
 an element of policy in this exageration. 
 His desire was “ to force the Slavery 
 issue” on the North, believing that delay 
 was dangerous, as the slave-masters were 
 then relatively stronger, both morally and 
 politically, than they would ever be again. 
 
 At last the end has come. Slavery is 
 openly pronounced at one time “ the black 
 marble keystone of our National Arch 
 at another time “ the corner-stone of our 
 Republican edificethen it is vaunted 
 as “ the highest type of civilization then 
 as “ a blessing to the master as well as 
 the slave and then again “ as ennobling 
 to the master if not to the slave.” It is 
 only the first step which costs, and there¬ 
 fore the authors of these opinions, so 
 
7 
 
 shocking to the moral sense, do not hesi¬ 
 tate at other opinions equally shocking to 
 the reason which pretend to find impossi¬ 
 ble sanctions for Slavery in the Constitu¬ 
 tion. Listening to these extravagances, 
 who would not exclaim with Ben Jonson 
 in the play ?— 
 
 a Grave fathers, he’s possest; again I say, 
 
 Possest; nay, if there be possession 
 And obsession, he has both.” 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, what is Slave¬ 
 ry 1 This is no question merely of cu¬ 
 riosity or philanthropy; for when the 
 National Government, which you and I at 
 the North help to constitute, is degraded 
 to be its instrument, and all the National 
 Territories are proclaimed open to its 
 Barbarism, and the Constitution itself is 
 perverted to sanction its pretensions, the 
 whole subject naturally, logically and 
 necessarily enters into our discussion. It 
 cannot be avoided; it cannot be blinked 
 out of sight. Nay, you must pass upon it 
 by your votes at the coming election. 
 Futile is the plea that we at the North 
 have nothing to do with Slavery. Granted 
 that we have nothing to do with it in the 
 States ; we have much to do with all its 
 irrational pretensions under the Constitu¬ 
 tion, and just so long as these irrational 
 pretensions are urged, Slavery must be 
 discussed. It must be laid bare in its 
 enormity, precisely as though it were pro¬ 
 posed to plant it here in the streets of 
 New York. Nor can such a wrong—foul 
 in itself, and fouler still in its pretensions 
 -—be dealt with tamely. Tameness is 
 surrender. And charity, too, may be 
 misapplied. Forgiving those who tres¬ 
 pass against us, I know not if we are 
 called to forgive those who trespass 
 against others ; to forgive those who tres¬ 
 pass against the Republic; to forgive 
 those who trespass against civilization ; to 
 
 forgive those who trespass against a whole 
 race; to forgive those who trespass against 
 the universal Human Family; finally to 
 forgive those who trespass againt God. 
 Such trespassers now exist among us— 
 possessing the organization of party—pos¬ 
 sessing the control of the National Gov¬ 
 ernment—constituting at this moment a 
 colossal Power—and “ what seems its 
 head the likeness of a President has on.” 
 Surely if ever there was a moment when 
 every faculty should be bent to the ser¬ 
 vice, and all should be invigorated by an 
 inspiring zeal—falsely rejected by the 
 heartless diplomatist—it is now, while the 
 battle between Civilization and Barbarism 
 is still undecided, and you are summoned 
 to resist the last desperate shock. To 
 this work I am not equal; but I do not 
 shrink from the duties of my post. Alas ! 
 human language is gentle, and the human 
 voice is weak. AYords only are mine, 
 when I ought to command thunderbolts. 
 Voice only is mine, when, like the ancient 
 Athenian, I ought to carry the weapons of 
 Zeus on the tongue. 
 
 What then, I repeat, is Slavery ! The 
 occasion forbids details ; but enough must 
 be presented to place this outrage in its 
 true light—as something worse even than 
 a constant state of war where the master 
 is the constant aggressor. And here I 
 put aside for the moment all the tales 
 which reach us from the house of bondage; 
 all the cumulative, crushing testimony, 
 alike from slaves and from their masters; 
 all the barbarous incidents which have 
 helped to arouse a yet too feeble indigna¬ 
 tion ; in short, all the glimpses which 
 have come to us from this mighty Bine 
 Beard’s chamber. All these I put aside, 
 not because they are of little moment in 
 exhibiting the true character of Slavery, 
 but because I desire to arraign Slavery 
 
8 
 
 on grounds above all controversy, im¬ 
 peachment or suspicion, even from slave- 
 masters themselves. Not on triumphant 
 story, adorned by the genius of woman; 
 not even on indisputable facts do I now 
 accuse Slavery; but on its character as 
 revealed in its own simple definition of it¬ 
 self. Out of its own mouth do I con¬ 
 demn it. 
 
 By the law of Slavery , man created in 
 the image of God, fearfully and wonder¬ 
 fully made, with sensibilities of pleasure 
 and pain, with sentiments of love, with as¬ 
 pirations for improvement, with a sense of 
 property, and with a soul like ourselves, 
 is despoiled of his human character, and 
 declared to be a mere chattel “to all in¬ 
 tents and purposes whatsoever.” I do 
 not stop to give at length all its odious 
 words ; you are doubtless familiar with 
 them. The Heathen idea of Aristotle is 
 repeated—“ a tool with a soul.” But in 
 this simple definition is contained the 
 whole incalculable wrong of Slavery ; for 
 out of it, as from an inexhaustible foun¬ 
 tain, are derived all the unrighteous pre¬ 
 rogatives of the master. These are five 
 in number, and I know not which is most 
 revolting. 
 
 First, there is the pretension that man 
 can hold property in man, forgetful that, 
 by a law older than all human law, fore¬ 
 most stands the indefeasible right of every 
 man to himself. 
 
 Secondly , the absolute nullification of the 
 relation of husband and wife, so that all 
 who are called slaves aredelivered over to 
 concubinage or prostitution, it maybe with 
 each other, or it may be with their mas¬ 
 ters ; but with whomsoever it may be, it 
 is the same, for with slaves marriage is 
 impossible, as they are merely “ coupled,” 
 never married. 
 
 Thirdly,., the absolute nullification of the 
 
 relation of parent and child ; for the infant 
 legally belongs, not to the mother who 
 bore it, but to the master who bought it. 
 
 Fourthly, the absolute denial of instruc¬ 
 tion ; for the master may always, at his 
 own rude discretion, prevent his victim 
 from learning to read, and thus shut upon 
 him those gates of knowledge which ©pen 
 such vistas on earth and in Heaven. 
 And 
 
 Fifthly, the absolute robbery of the la¬ 
 bor of another and of all its fruits ; for¬ 
 getful that by the same original law under 
 which every man has a title to himself, he 
 has also a title to the fruits of his own la¬ 
 bor, amounting in itself to a sacred prop¬ 
 erty, which no person, however called, 
 whether despot or master, can righteously 
 appropriate. 
 
 Such are the five essential elements of 
 Slavery. Look at them, and you will con¬ 
 fess that this institution stands forth as a 
 hateful assemblage of unquestionable 
 wrongs under the sanction of existing law. 
 Take away any one of these, and just to 
 that extent Slavery will cease to exist. 
 Take away all, and the Slavery Question 
 will be settled. But this assemblage be¬ 
 comes more hateful still when its unmis- 
 takeable single motive is detected, which 
 is simply this— to compel Labor without 
 wages . Incredible as it may seem, it can¬ 
 not be denied that the right of a man to 
 himself—the right of a husband to his wife 
 —the right of a parent to his child—the 
 rio-ht of a man to instruction—the right of 
 a man to the fruits of his own labor—all 
 these supreme rights, by the side of which 
 other rights are petty, are trampled down 
 in order to organize that five-headed sel¬ 
 fishness, practically maintained by the 
 lash, which, look at it as you will, has for 
 its single object COMPULSOBY LA¬ 
 BOR. WITHOUT WAGES. 
 
9 
 
 That Slavery thus constituted, can be 
 good for the master, is one of the halluci- 
 nations of the system—something like the 
 hallucination of the opium-eater. Fasci¬ 
 nating, possibly, it may be for a time, but 
 debasing and destructive it must be in the 
 end. That slave-masters should be violent 
 and tyrannical—that they should be re¬ 
 gardless of all rights, especially -where 
 Slavery is in question—and that the higher 
 virtues of character should fail in them— 
 all this might be inferred, even in the 
 absence of evidence, according to the irre¬ 
 sistible law of cause and effect. No man 
 can do injustice with impunity. He may 
 not suffer in worldly condition; but he 
 must suffer in his own nature. And the 
 very unconsciousness in which he lives 
 aggravates the unhappy influence. Nor 
 can familiarity with the scenes of Slavery 
 fail to harden the heart. 
 
 Persons become accustomed to scenes 
 of brutality, till they witness them with 
 indifference. Hogarth, that master of 
 human nature, has portrayed this tendency 
 in his picture of a dissection at a Medical 
 College, where the President maintains 
 the dignity of insensibility over a corpse 
 which he regards simply as the object of 
 a lecture. And Horace Walpole, who 
 admired the satire of this picture, finds in 
 it an illustration of the truth, that “ the 
 legal habitude of viewing shocking scenes 
 hardens the human mind, and renders it 
 unfeeling.” And this simple truth, in its 
 most general application, illustrates the 
 condition of the slave-master. How can 
 he show sensibility for the common rights 
 of fellow-citizens, who sacrifices daily the 
 most sacred rights of othersHmerely to 
 secure labor without wages . With him a 
 false standard is necessarily established, 
 bringing with it a blunted moral sense, 
 and clouded perceptions, so that when he 
 
 does something intrinsically barbarous or 
 mean, he does not blush to find it fame. 
 
 Here, again, I forbear all details. The 
 reason of the intellect blending with the 
 reason of the heart; the testimony of his¬ 
 tory fortified by the testimony of good 
 men ; an array of unerring figures linked 
 with an array of unerring facts ; all these 
 I might employ. And I might proceed to 
 show how this barbarous influence besrin- 
 ning on the plantation, diffuses itself 
 throughout society, enters into official con¬ 
 duct, and even mounts into Congress, 
 where for a long time it has exercised a 
 a vulgar domination, trampling not only 
 on all the amenities of debate, but abso¬ 
 lutely on Parliamentary law. Put I shall 
 not open this chapter. 
 
 But there is one frightful circumstance, 
 unhappily of frequent occurrence, which 
 proclaims so clearly the character of the 
 social system bred by Slavery that I shall 
 be pardoned for adducing it. I refer to 
 (he roasting of slaves alive at the stake ; 
 one has been roasted only recently ; not 
 after a public trial, according to the forms 
 of law, as at the fires of Smithfield, but by 
 a lawless crowd, suddenly assembled, who 
 in this way make themselves the ministers 
 of a cruel vengeance. This Barbarism, 
 which seems to have become a patt of the 
 customary law of Slavery may well cover 
 us all with humiliation, when we reflect 
 that it has already been renounced by the 
 copper-colored savages of our continent; 
 while, during the present century, more 
 instances of it have occurred amono- our 
 
 O 
 
 slave-masters than we know of among our 
 savages since that early day when Capt, 
 Smith was saved from a kindred fate by the 
 tenderness of Pocahontas. Perhaps no 
 other usage reveals with such fearful dis¬ 
 tinctness the deep-seated, pervading influ¬ 
 ence of Slavery, offensive to civilization, 
 
 * 
 
10 
 
 hostile to law itself, by virtue of which it 
 pretends to live, insulting to humanity, 
 shocking to decency, and utterly heedless 
 of all rights, forms or observances, in the 
 maintenance of its wicked power. 
 
 Let me not be unjust to slave-masters. 
 Some there are, I doubt not, of happy 
 natures, uncorrupted by the possession of 
 tyrannical power, who render the condition 
 of their slaves endurable, and in private 
 virtues emulate the graces of civilization ; 
 but the good in these cases comes from 
 the masters, notwithstanding Slavery. 
 And, besides, there are the great exam¬ 
 ples of the Fathers of the Republic, who 
 looking down upon Slavery and regarding 
 it as an Evil, were saved from its contami¬ 
 nation. To all these I render heart-felt 
 homage. But their exceptional virtues 
 cannot save from condemnation the essen¬ 
 tial wrong which I now expose. 
 
 Such, fellow-citizens, is Slavery as it 
 appears in its law, and also in its influence 
 on society. Bad as it is, if it modestly 
 kept at home—if it did not stalk into the 
 National jurisdiction, and enter into the 
 National Government, within the reach of 
 cur votes, I should not summon you on 
 this occasion to unite against it; for 
 whatever may be the promptings of sym¬ 
 pathy and of godlike philanthrophy, noth¬ 
 ing is clearer than that our political duties 
 depend simply upon our political respon¬ 
 sibilities ; and since we are not politically 
 responsible for Slavery in Charleston, or 
 in Constantinople, so in neither place have 
 we any political duties in regard to it. 
 Lament it wherever it exists we must, and 
 surround its victims with our prayers, but 
 our action, while inspired by these senti¬ 
 ments, must rest within the landmarks of 
 the law and the Constitution. 
 
 And here the field is ample. Indeed, 
 if Slavery existed nowhere within the na¬ 
 
 tional jurisdiction, as it clearly does, our 
 duties would still be urgent, to grapple 
 with that pernicious influence, which 
 through an Oligarchical Combination of 
 slave-masters, unknown to the Constitu¬ 
 tion, never anticipated by its founders, and 
 existing in defiance of their example, has 
 entered into and possessed the National 
 Government, like an Evil Spirit. This 
 influence, which wielding at will all the 
 powers of the National Government—even 
 those of the judiciary itself—has become 
 formidable to Freedom everywhere, clutch¬ 
 ing violently at the Territories, and 
 menacing the Free States themselves—as 
 witness the claim still undecided in the 
 Court of the last resort of a citizen of Vir¬ 
 ginia to hold slaves in New York on the 
 way to Texas; this influence, now so 
 vaulting, was for a long time unobserved, 
 even while exercising a controlling power. 
 At first timid and shy, from an undoubted 
 consciousness of its guilt, it avoided dis¬ 
 cussion ; but it was determined in its pol¬ 
 icy. The Southern Senator who boasted 
 that for sixty years the Slave States had 
 governed the country, knew well their 
 constant inferiority to the Free States in 
 population, wealth, manufactures, com¬ 
 merce, schools, churches, libraries and all 
 the activities of a true civilization; knew 
 well that they had contributed nothing to 
 the literature of the country, even in 
 political economy and the science of Gov¬ 
 ernment, which they have so vehemently 
 professed, except the now forgotten “ forty 
 bale theory ; v knew well that by no prin¬ 
 ciple of justice could this long predomi¬ 
 nance be explained; but he forgot to 
 confess the secret agency. True it is that 
 in the game of office and legislation, the 
 Slave States have always won. They 
 have played with loaded dice —loaded with 
 Slavery. The trick of the Automaton 
 
11 
 
 Chess Player, for so long a time an in¬ 
 comprehensible marvel, has been repeated 
 with similar success. Let the Free States 
 make a move on the board and the Slave 
 States have said “ check.” Let them 
 strive for Free-Trade, and the cry has 
 been “ check.” Let them jump toward 
 Protection, and again it is “ check.” Let 
 them move toward Internal Improvements 
 ’and the cry is still “ check.” Whether 
 forward or backward, to the right or left, 
 wherever they moved, the Free States 
 have been pursued by an inexorable 
 “ check.” But the secret is now discover¬ 
 ed. Amid the well-arranged machinery, 
 which seemed to give motion to the victo¬ 
 rious Chess-Player, was concealed a mo¬ 
 tive force which has not been estimated; 
 I mean the Slave Power. It is the Slave 
 Power which has been the perpetual vic¬ 
 tor, saying always “ check” to the Free 
 States. And it is the Slave Power which 
 for sixty years, according to the boast of 
 the Senator, has governed the country. 
 
 The actual number of slaveholders was 
 for a long time unknown, and on ihis ac¬ 
 count was naturally exagerated. It was 
 often represented to be very great On 
 one occasion, a distinguished representa¬ 
 tive from Massachnsetts, whose name will 
 be ever cherished for his devotion to hu¬ 
 man rights—I mean the late Horace Mann 
 —was rudely interrupted on the floor of 
 Congress by a member from Alabama, 
 who averred that the number of slavehold¬ 
 ers was as many as 3,000,000. At that 
 time there was no official document by 
 which this extravagance could be correct¬ 
 ed. But at last we have it. The late 
 census, taken ? in 1850, shows that the 
 whole number of this peculiar class—em¬ 
 bracing men, women, and children, all 
 told, who are so unfortunate as to hold 
 slaves—was only 347,000; and of this 
 
 number, the large part are small slave¬ 
 holders, leaving only 91,000 persons as 
 the owners of the great mass of slaves, 
 and the substantial representatives of this 
 class. And yet this small Oligarchy, 
 odious in origin, without any foundation in 
 that justice which is the essential base of 
 every civilized association—stuck together 
 only by confederacy in all the five-heacled 
 wrong of Slavery—and constituting in it¬ 
 self a Magnum Latrocinium —has, by the 
 confession of one of its own leaders, for 
 sixty years governed the Republic. To 
 this end two things have concurred. First, 
 its associated wealth, being the asserted 
 value of its human flesh, constituting a 
 flagitious capital of two thousand millions 
 of dollars ; and secondly, its peculiar rep¬ 
 resentation in the House of Bepresenta- 
 tives, where, under the three-fifths rule 
 of the Constitution, ninety members actu¬ 
 ally hold their seats, by virtue in part of 
 this flagicious capital. Thus are the slave- 
 masters an enormous Corporation, or Joint 
 Stock Company, by the side of which the 
 United States Bank, with its petty thirty 
 millions of capital, and without any pecu¬ 
 liar representation, is dwarfed into insig¬ 
 nificance. 
 
 I feel humbled when I dwell on the 
 amazing disproportion of offices usurped 
 by this Oligarchy. From the beginning, 
 all the great posts of the Bepublic—the 
 Presidency, the Yice-Presidency, seats in 
 the Cabinet, seats in the Supreme Court, 
 the Presidency of the Senate, the Speaker- 
 ship—seem to have been almost perpetu¬ 
 ally in their hands. At this moment, the 
 Free States, with double the population 
 of the Slave States, have only four out of 
 the nine Judges of the Supreme Court; 
 and of these four, it must be said three 
 are Northern men with Southern princi¬ 
 ples. And in the humbler places at the 
 
12 
 
 Departments, the same extraordinary dis¬ 
 proportion prevails. Out of the whole num¬ 
 ber there employed, 421 are from the 
 Free States, but mostly with Southern 
 principles, and 806 from the Slave States. 
 These instances are typical. There is 
 nothing in the National Government which 
 the Oligarchy does not appropriate. Down 
 to our day, it has held the keys of every 
 office, from the President to the humblest 
 Post-master, compelling all to do its bid¬ 
 ding It organizes Cabinets. It organ¬ 
 izes Courts. It directs the Army and 
 Navy. It manages every department of 
 public business. It presides over the 
 census. It controls the Smithsonian In¬ 
 stitution, founded by the generous charity 
 of a foreigner, to promote the interests of 
 mankind. And it subsidizes the national 
 press, alike in the national capital and in 
 the remotest village of the North. 
 
 In maintaining its power, the Slave 
 Oligarchy has applied a test for office very 
 different from that of Jefferson : “Is he 
 honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful 
 to the Constitution?” These things are all 
 forgotten now in the single question, which 
 signalizes the great change which has 
 taken place, “Is he faithful to Slavery?” 
 With arrogant ostracism, it excludes from 
 every national office all who cannot respond 
 to this test. So complete and irrational 
 has this tyranny become, that at this 
 moment while I now speak, could Wash¬ 
 ington, or Jefferson, or Franklin, or John 
 Jay, once more descend from their spheres 
 above, to mingle in our affairs, and bless 
 us with their wisdom, not one of them, 
 with his recorded, unretracted opinions on 
 Slavery could receive a nomination for the 
 Presidency from either fraction of the 
 divided Democratic party, or from that 
 other political combination, known as the 
 Union party; nor, stranger still, could 
 
 either of these sainted patriots, whose 
 names alone open a perpetual fountain of 
 gratitude in all your hearts, be confirmed 
 by the Senate of the United States for 
 any political function whatever, not even 
 for the local office of Post-master. What 
 I now say amid your natural astonishment, 
 I have often said before in addressing the 
 people, and I have more than once uttered 
 from my seat in the Senate, and no man 
 there has made answer, for no man who 
 has sat in its secret sessions, and there 
 learned the test, which is practically ap¬ 
 plied, could make answer; and I ask you 
 to accept this statement as my testimony 
 derived from the experience which has 
 been my lot. Yes, fellow-citizens, had 
 this test prevailed in the earlier days, 
 Washington—first in war, first in peace, 
 first in the hearts of his countrymen, 
 could not have been created generalissimo 
 of the American forces; Jefferson could 
 not have taken his place on the Committee 
 to draft the Declaration of Independence ; 
 and Franklin could not have gone forth to 
 France, with the commission of the infant 
 Republic, to secure the invaluable alliance 
 of that ancient kingdom; nor could John 
 Jay, as first Chief Justice, have lent to 
 our judiciary the benignant grace of his 
 name and character. 
 
 Standing on the bent necks of an en¬ 
 slaved race—with four millions of human 
 beings as the black marble Caryatides to 
 support its power, the Slave Oligarchy 
 erects itself into a lordly Caste which 
 brooks no opposition. But when I speak 
 of Caste I mean nothing truly polite ; and 
 when I speak of Oligarchy I mean nothing 
 truly aristocratic As despotism is simply 
 an abuse of monarchy, so an Oligarchy is 
 simply an abuse of aristocracy, unless it 
 be that most vulgar of all, the “ aristocracy 
 of the skin.” Derived from Slavery, and 
 
i* 
 
 liaving the interests of Slavery always in 
 view, our Oligarchy must naturally take 
 its character from this Jive-headed wrong. 
 
 - Things bad begun make strong themselves by :11.” 
 
 All that is had in Slavery—its audacity, 
 its immorality, its cruelty, its robbery, its 
 meanness, its ignorance, its barbarous 
 disregard of human .rights, and its barba¬ 
 rous disregard of human obligation, must 
 all be reproduced in its representative. 
 If the Oligarchy hesitates at nothing to 
 serve its selfish ends, it simply acts in 
 harmony with Slavery, from which it draws 
 its life-blood. If in grasp of power it is 
 like the hunchback Richard ; if in false¬ 
 hood it copies Iago and if in character it 
 is as brutal as the untaught Caliban, 
 
 '* Which any print of goodness will not take, 
 
 Being capable of all ill 
 
 Aye, if in all these respects it surpasses 
 its prototypes, be not astonished, fellow- 
 citizens, for it acts simply according to the 
 original law of its birth, and the inborn 
 necessities of its being. 
 
 The soul sickens in contemplating the 
 acts of dishonest tyranny which have been 
 perpetrated by this domineering power. 
 
 I cannot give their history now. But 
 looking at the old Missouri Compromise, 
 founded on the admission of Missouri as a 
 Slave State, and in consideration thereof 
 the Prohibition of Slavery in other outly¬ 
 ing Territory, and seeing how—after an 
 acquiesence of Thirty-two years, and the 
 irreclaimable possession by Slavery of its 
 especial share in the provisions of this 
 Compromise—in violation of every obliga¬ 
 tion of honor, compact and good neighbor¬ 
 hood, and in contemptuous disregard of 
 the out-gushing sentiments of an aroused 
 North—this time-honored Prohibition was 
 overturned, and the vast region now known 
 as Kansas and Nebraska, was opened to 
 Slavery; looking next at the juggling bill 
 
 by which this was accomplished, declaring 
 that its object was to leave the people 
 * perfectly free to form their domestic 
 institutions in their own way”—and seeing, 
 how, in spite of these express words, the 
 courageous settlers there were left a prey 
 to invading hordes from Missouri, who 
 entering the Territory organized a Usur¬ 
 pation, which by positive law proceeded 
 to fasten Slavery upon that beautiful soil, 
 and to surround it with a code of death ; 
 looking at the Lecompton Constitution, 
 that master-piece of wicked contrivance, 
 by which this same people, in organizing 
 for a State, were fraudulently prevented 
 from passing upon the question of Slavery 
 —and seeing how the infamous counter¬ 
 feit, though repudiated by the people, was 
 openly adopted by the President, and by 
 him corruptly urged upon Congress, with 
 all the power of his Administration ; look¬ 
 ing at these things and others which fill 
 the mind, I feel how vain it is to expect 
 truce or compromise with the Slave Oli¬ 
 garchy Punic in faith ; no compact can 
 bind it while all interpretations -of the 
 Constitution, friendly to freedom, though 
 sanctioned by Court and Congress in con¬ 
 tinuous precedents, are unceremoniously 
 rejected. Faust, in the incomparable 
 poem of Goethe, on being told that in Hell 
 itself the laws prevail, says : 
 
 “Now that I like , so then, one may, in fact, 
 
 Conclude a binding Compact with you, gentry ! w 
 
 To which Mephistophiles replies : 
 
 “ Whatever promise in our books finds entry, 
 
 We strictly carry into act.” 
 
 But no compact or promise binds the 
 gentry of Slavery—although entered again 
 and again in their books ! 
 
 Of course, fellow-citizens,‘you are now 
 ready to see that the corruptions by which 
 the present Administration has been de- 
 
14 
 
 graded are the natural offspring of the 
 immorality of Slavery. They have all 
 occurred in sustaining the policy of the 
 Oligarchy, and in the case of the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution, in a direct effort to fasten 
 Slavery upon a distant territory, and they 
 are all marked by the effrontery of 
 Slavery. Smollett attributes the peculiar 
 profligacy of England at a particular pe¬ 
 riod to the demoralization of the South 
 Sea Bubble ; but what is such a fugitive 
 influence compared with Slavery, which 
 indeed if it were not a crime, might well 
 be called a Bubble? Surely a Govern¬ 
 ment which vindicates the sale of human 
 beings need not hesitate to purchase votes 
 whether at the polls or in Congress. The 
 two transactions belong to the same family, 
 though unquestionably the last is tne least 
 
 reprehensible. 
 
 1 
 
 Fellow citizens, would you arrest these 
 corruptions, and the disastrous influence 
 from which they spring, involving nothing 
 less than civilization on this continent, 
 the Republican party tells you how, and 
 in telling you how, it vindicates at once 
 its origin and its necessity. The work 
 must be done, and there is no other 
 organization by which it can be done. A 
 party with such an origin and such a 
 necessity cannot be for a day or for this 
 election only. It cannot be less perma¬ 
 nent than the hostile influence which it is 
 formed to counteract. Therefore, just so 
 long as the present false theories of 
 Slavery prevail, whether concerning its 
 character—morally, economically and so¬ 
 cially—or concerning its prerogatives un¬ 
 der the Constitution, and just so long as 
 the Slave Oligarchy, which is the sleep¬ 
 less and unhesitating agent of Slavery in 
 all its pretensions, continues to exist as a 
 political power, the Republican party must 
 endure. If bad men conspire for Slavery, 
 
 good men must combine for Freedom ; nor 
 can the Holy YCar be ended until the 
 Barbarism now dominant in the Republic 
 is overthrown, and the Pagan power is 
 driven from our Jerusalem. And when 
 this triumph is won, securing the imme¬ 
 diate object of our organization, the Re¬ 
 publican party will not die, but, purified 
 by its long contest with Slavery, and filled 
 with higher life, it will be lifted to yet 
 other efforts for the good of man. 
 
 At present the work is plain before us. 
 It is simply to elect our candidates; 
 Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, whose ability 
 so conspicuously shown in his own State 
 attracted at once the admiration of the 
 whole country ; whose character no breath 
 has touched, and whose heart is large 
 enough to embrace the broad Republic and 
 all its people—him you will elect Presi¬ 
 dent ; and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, 
 whose clear head, firm principles, and 
 ample experience none who sit with him 
 in the Senate Chamber can contest—him 
 you will elect Vice-President. Electing 
 these, we shall put the National Govern¬ 
 ment—at least in its Executive department 
 —openly and actively on the side of Free¬ 
 dom ; and this alone will be of incalculable 
 influence—not only in itself, but as the 
 harbinger of the Future. 
 
 First and foremost, we shall save the 
 Territories from the five-headed Barbar¬ 
 ism of Slavery, keeping them in their^nor- 
 mal condition, as they came from the hand 
 of God, free—with Freedom written on the 
 soil and engraved on the rock, while the 
 winds will whisper it in the trees, the 
 rivers will murmur it in their flow, and all 
 nature echo it in joy unspeakable. 
 
 Next we shall save the country from 
 the crying infamy of the slave-trade, 
 whoso opening anew, as now menaced, is, 
 indeed, but a logical consequence of the 
 
15 
 
 new theories of Slavery. If Slavery be 
 the “blessing’’ it is vaunted, then must 
 the slave-trade be benificent, and they 
 who ply it with the fiercest activity must 
 take their places among the missionaries 
 and saints of humanity. 
 
 Next we shall save the Constitution, at 
 least within the sphere of Executive 
 influence, from outrage and perversion; 
 so that the President will no longer lend 
 himself to that wildest ’pretension of the 
 Slave Oligarchy, as Mr. Buchanan has 
 done, by declaring that Slavery is carried 
 under the Constitution into all Territories 
 and that it now exists in Kansas as firmly 
 as in South Carolina. As out of nothing 
 can come nothing, so out of the nothing in 
 the Constitution on this subject can be de¬ 
 rived no support for thi3 inordinate preten¬ 
 sion, which may be best dismissed in that 
 classical similitude by which the ancient 
 Homans rebuked a groundless folly, when 
 they called it ass's wool —which is some¬ 
 thing that docs not exist—and plainly said 
 to its author, asini lanam quccris {You 
 gather ass's ivool!) 
 
 Next we shall help to save' the Declara¬ 
 tion of,Independence, now dishonored and 
 disowned in its essential life-^ivins: truth— 
 the Equality of Man. This transcendant 
 principle, which appears twice at the Crea¬ 
 tion—first, when God said, “ Let us make 
 man in our own image,’’ and secondly, in 
 the Unity of the Pace, then divinely es¬ 
 tablished ; which appears again in the Gos- 
 pel when it was said, “ God that made the 
 world and all things therein, hathpnade of 
 one blood all nations of men ; ” which ap¬ 
 pears again in the primal reason of the 
 world, anterior to all institutions and laws, 
 belongs to those self-evident truths, some¬ 
 times called axioms, which no mhn can 
 question without ^ exposing to question 
 h^is own intelligence or honesty. As. 
 
 well deny arithmetically that two and 
 two make four, or deny geometrically 
 that a straight line is the shortest distance 
 between two points, as deny the axiomatic, 
 self-evident, beaming truth, that all men 
 are equal. As of the sun in the heavens— 
 blind is he who cannot perceive it. Of 
 course, this principle, uttered in a Decla¬ 
 ration of Bights, is applicable simply to 
 rights; and it is a childish sophism to 
 allege against it the obvious inequalities of 
 form, character and faculties. As an 
 axiom, it admits no exception ; for it is 
 the essence of an axiom, whether in geo¬ 
 metry or in morals, to be universal. As an 
 abstract truth, it is also without exception, 
 according to the essence of such truth. 
 And finally as a self-evident truth, so 
 
 announced in the Declaration, it is without 
 
 q 
 
 Exception, for only such truth can be self- 
 evident. Thus, whether as axiom, as 
 abstract truth, or self-evident truth, it is 
 always universal. In vindicating this prin¬ 
 ciple, the Bepublican party have a grate¬ 
 ful duty to which they are moved alike by 
 justice to a much-injured race, -excluded 
 from its protection, and by justice to the 
 Fathers, whose well-chosen words — fit 
 foundation for an empire—have been 
 turned into a mockery; nor can the mad¬ 
 ness of the Propagandists of Slavery be 
 better illustrated than in this assault on 
 the Declaration of Independence, stulti¬ 
 fying the Fathers for no other purpose 
 than to clear the way for their five-headed 
 system of Compulsory Labor without 
 Wages.. 
 
 And, finally, we shall help to expel the 
 Slave Oligarchy from all its seats of na¬ 
 tional power, and drive it back within the 
 States. This alone is worthy of every 
 effort; for until this is done, nothing else 
 can be completely done. In vain you 
 .seek eeonomy or purity in tho National 
 
 1 
 
16 
 
 u 
 
 
 Government; in vain you seek improve¬ 
 ment of rivers and harbors ; in vain you 
 seek homesteads on the public lands for 
 actual settlers ; in vain you seek reform 
 in administration; in vain you seek dig¬ 
 nity and peace in our foreign relations, 
 with just sympathy for struggling Free¬ 
 dom everywhere; while this selfish and 
 corrupt power holds the National purse 
 and the National sword. Prostrate the 
 Slave Oligarchy, and the door will be 
 open to all generous principles. Prostrate 
 the Slave Oligarchy, and liberty will be¬ 
 come, in fact, as in law, the normal condi¬ 
 tion of all the national Territories Pros¬ 
 trate the Slave Oligarchy, and/the National 
 Government will be at lehgth divorced 
 from Slavery, and the national policy will 
 be changed from Slavery to Freedom.— 
 Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, and the 
 North will be ^0 longer the vassal of the 
 South. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, 
 and the North will be admitted to its just 
 share in the trusts and honors of the Re¬ 
 public ! Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, 
 and a mighty victory of Peace will be 
 won, whose influence on the Future of our 
 country, and of mankind, no imagination 
 can paint! 
 
 Prostrated, exposed, and permanently 
 expelled from ill-gotten power, the Oligar¬ 
 chy will soon cease to exist as a political 
 combination. Its final doom may be post¬ 
 poned, but it is certain Languishing, it 
 may live yet longer; but it will surely 
 die. Yes, fellow-citizens, surely, it will 
 die—when disappointed in its purposes— 
 driven back within the States, and con¬ 
 strained within these limits—it can no 
 longer rule the Republic as a plantation 
 of slaves at home ; can no longer menace 
 
 the Territories with its five-headed device 
 to compel Labor without Wages ; can no 
 longer fasten upon the Constitution an 
 interpretation which makes merchandise 
 of men, and gives a disgraceful immunity 
 to brokers of human flesh and butchers of 
 human hearts ; and when it can no longer 
 grind flesh and blood, groans and sighs, 
 the tears of mothers and the cries of child¬ 
 ren, into the cement of a barbarous politi¬ 
 cal Power! Surely, then, in its retreat, 
 smarting under the indignation of an 
 aroused people and the concurring judg¬ 
 ment of the civilized world, it must die— 
 it may be, as a poisoned rat dies of rage 
 in its hole ! 
 
 Meanwhile, all good omens are ours. 
 The work cannot stop. Quickened by the 
 triumph now at hand—with a Republican 
 President in power—State after State 
 quitting the condition of a Territory and 
 spurning Slavery, will be welcomed into 
 our Plural Unit, and, joining hands to¬ 
 gether, will become a belt of fire girt about 
 the Slave States, within which Slavery 
 must die ; or, happier still, joining hands 
 together, they will become to the Slave 
 States a zone of Freedom, radiant like the 
 ancient cestus of Beauty, with transform¬ 
 ing power. 
 
 It only remains that we should speed 
 these good influences. Others may dwell 
 on the Past as secure. But to my mind, 
 under the laws of a beneficent God, the 
 future also is secure —on the single con¬ 
 dition that we press forward in the work 
 with heart and soul—forgetting self— 
 turning from the temptations of the hour— 
 and, intent only on the cause, 
 
 “ With mean compliance ne’er betray our trust. 
 
 Nor be so civil as to prove unjust ” 
 
 ISSUED BY THE YOUNG MEN’S REPUBLICAN UNION OF NEW-YORK. , 
 ROOMS. STUYVESANT INSTITUTE, 659 BROADWAY.