JcVxi Baker Abridged Speech Oct. 2, 1858 ABRIDGED SPEECH OP JEHU BAKER, i OCTOBER 2, 1858 ALTON, ILL.: AT THI COURIER STBAM BOOK AKD JOB PTNTIN 10VS8. 1.858. ^f 73. <>" SPEECH OF JEHU BAKER. Fellow Citizc'Ls: 'perish than stand before in p*opi* for ID appearing before TOO as a candidate their votos. I do not believe, however, that for Congress in this district, I must confess the arts of cunning and intrigue are the I feel a ome degree of embarra- sment from most powerful means of gaining the mpport the perfectly new and strange position which of majorities. 1 will not think so meanly of I occupy. My habits, my natural innlina- human nature as this. I believe that reason tions, my studies and employments hitve and moral bon-sty and patriotism are the not been such as to kindle in my mind the ruling elements in the American mind. 1 love and pursuit of office. I never before believe that plain, artless, downright was a candidate for any official position, and truth, is on the wboie mor? powerful auO Oin truly say that I did honestly suppose more popular than cunning and deceit. 1 until quite recentlv thnt I never would be. believe that meu are more a?epiy and more Obeying, however, the warm solicitations ieneraliy moved by appealing to their un- i might almost say the commands, of nu- derstanchng and virtue, than to their preju- merous friends in various parts of the dis- dices and vices. I do not, therefore, reog- trict, I now speak to you in the character, nize the legitimacy of tiit'so views, >ocord- of a candidate resolved, nevertheless, as I ing to which it is uecestxiry for a aaudidai? must say in justice to myself, that aiy char- to unman himself, and to descend u lh - acter as a man, shall never b* swallowed up variety of mean expedients which are sap in the politician and the office seeker. Ii posed to be essential to success. And if I there is one conviction which has grown and did recognize their legitimacy, 1 am qit strengthened with my whole life and my ; 8ure I should never act upon them, whole experience, it is that the integrity of, I will make the further introductory r- a {man's innermost scul is to be preferred mark, that in my opinion one of the mo* above all the ambitious aims of life, damaging evils in the political state of our and that the loss of that, is ihe loss of country is the degree of rancor, vulgarity all for which God has placed man on this and falsehood which prevails in our politi- earth. I have no other apology lor the ex-'ca! discussions. This it- an evil which lam pression of such a sentiment in a political persuaded most, n.,en cf all parties must real- speech, than the spontaneous intensity with.ise. As a general tiling, a candidate f which I teol the truth of it, and to put down, office must either be constitutionally inaeu- at the very beginning of mv remark-}, a pro- sibie, or de must possess nerves of stee-l at'-. test against th ;t extended impression in the : a face of flint, in order to me.-t that torriMi public mind, that a candidate for office can- of detraction, rnisrepreemi'a'ica and slau not be a sincere man. If 1 thought that a der which is p*ured out upon his devo.- dam>iged character were tb^ neeessary price head ; and truth requires roc to add that','.. of office, I should feel that it were better toils applicable in a great m*aum t all cc 967588 (4) ti ins and parties of the country. My firrr, conviction is, that the discussion of our great political questions before the people, whether from the stump or the press, should be marked with that dignity, decency love of truth which we look for and require m the private relations of life. There is no reason on earth why a man, when he comes t > deal with public affairs, ahuuld lay aside the obligations of fair dealing, and the man- ners and language of a gentleman. I must B y, however, and it gives me the greatest pleasure to say it, thai 1 do not know in this entire district, a single man, -i single editor, no matter what our political differ- ences may be, who I believe is disposed to assail me with wanton and unfounded abuse; and one reason possibly is, that 1 have al- ways entertained nnd expressed the opin- ion, that whatever our pa k tv differences may be, we should never forget that we are fel- low citizens, having a common interest and a common destiny, and that the great masses composing all parties are in a like degree sincere in the wish to promote the welfare of our common country. Nor am I able to see that such sentiments of reasonable char- ity, are at all inconsistent with the firmest adherence to one'c own principles, and the m >i it forcible and influential expression of them. AU8B OT OUR POLITICAL TROUBLES. If we would seek a cure for our political evils we must first look to their cause. Adopting the opinion of DAXIEL WEBSTKR, a expressed in his speech of March 7th, 1850, it appears to m perfectly plain, that the source from which our present troubles proceed, will be found to consist in a two- has takn place in the country. Before these extremes took root there was entire harmony and unanimity of feeling and opin- ion North and South,and when we shall carry popular opinion and the administration of the government back to the old itarting point, that harmony will return. TUB OLD CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLB. If we look back to the beginning of ear government we shall find that there wat scarcely any difference of opinion in rela- tion to slavery. In the North and in the South alike, and quite universally, it was re- garded as a great and deplorable evil. In the language of Mr. Webster, "the eminent men, the most eminent men, and nearly all the conspicuous politicians of the South, held the same sentiment*; that slavery was an evil, a blight, a blast, a mildew, a scourge and a curse." It was expected that on the stoppage of the importation of slaves, slavery would begin to run out, and gradu- ally disappear from thn country. The opinions of Washington, J fforson, Madison, Franklin, Henry, Lee, and the whole rank and file of illustrious men of that day, with scarcely an exception, are known to have been strongly averse to slavery. Snob was the original state of opinion in the whole country. If we look to the actt of those great men, we shall find that they correspon- ded with the prevailing opinion of the time. They left slavery in the State's where they found it, but by the Ordinance of 13th July, 1787, they excluded it from all the territory then owned by the country tbat is from that great northwestern Territory, since divided up into the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Every fold departure from the great Conservative member of every slaveholding State voted principle* in which our government was for that Ordinance and tbat prohibition. founded, and in which all men, North and South, were united at the time. On either side of those great principles there has grown up an extreme form of opinion, one Shortly after the new government went into eperation those same men put that same Ordinanc e in force under our present Constitution. Not only this: early in the in the North and one in the South, and to present century, Congress was five times th" action of these extreme we must refer;applied to for a suspension of that portion the icetioaal agitation and bitterness whir h of the ordinance which prohibited slaves?; (5) and fire times fpngress refused the suspen- sion. Such then was the state of senti- ment, and such the action in relation to slavery, before, at the beginning, and some- time after our government went irto opera tion. There was no agitation, no bitterness, no angry warfare made upon slavery ; all, however, regarded it as an evil, and by general consent, and without opposition from any quarter, it was excluded from the ntire Territory of the country. THE NORTHERN EXTREME. In the course of time, a form of opinion took hold of a small portion of the North- ern mind which Mr. Webster speaks of as being "much more warm and strong against slavery" than that which prevailed in the beginning. The opposition to slavery by the fathers of the country was constitu- tional and conservative, and did much good. The extreme opposition of which I now speak is violent and excessive, and cal- culated to be mischievous instead of bene- ficial. I will glance at some of the points of this extreme. Resistance of the fugitive slave law by mob violence was unknown to the ear- ly history of our government. The sentiment that the constitution, because it sustains a limited relation to slavery, is "a covenant with death and a league with hell" was equally unknown. The notion that our Union should be dissolved as a means of removing responsibility for slavery, and offering a more efficient means of assailing it in the South, had no place in tie great and sane minds which made the Union. I will add that angry publications, written in a bitter and uncharitable spirit, and cal- culated to kindle the hatred of the Northern mind against a considerable portion of the Southern people is a mode of assailing sla- very which the wine and practical men of the first age of our government never dream- ed of resorting to. Thus we see there has grown up in a portion of the Northern mind and I must say that I do not believe that class to be very large an extreme feeling f hostility to slavery extreme when oompared with the conservative op- position to that great evil which wo* pit forth by the fathers of tke country. THE SOUTHERN EXTRBJU. The Southern extreme which has diverged off from the old doctrine of the country, Mr. Webster states in similar language, by saying that it bus grown "much more warm and strong" in support of slavery. Instead of being " a blight, a blast, a mildew, a scourge and a curse," as il was regarded by the virtuous and great men of the Revo- lution, slavery is BOW spoken of as * no evil, no scourge, but as a great religious, social and moral blessing." I will not stop to enquire, in any detail, what is the cause of this change of opinion in a portion of the Southern mind. Mr. Webster attributes it to the increased production and profit of the cotton plantations of the South. He refers to the faet that in the years 1790 and '91 the export of cotton did not exceed forty or fifty thousand dollars, and that in 1850 it would scarcely fall short of a hun- dred millions. Slavery having become pro- fitable in this line of production (which it was not at an earlier day,) the opinion of the slave-holder underwent a change cor- responding to his material interest. Instead of an evil as it was held by the fathers, it came to be regarded as a blessing. And to fit this new and extreme opinion, a new and extreme Constitutional doctrine hat been invented and installed in power. I allude to that monstrous doetrine of Mr. Calboun, the great organizer and leader of this South- ern extreme, that the Constitution carriet and plants slavery in the Territories, and that neither Congress nor the people of the Ter- ritory themselves can exclude it if they teish to ! This horrible doctrine, expressing the extremest sentiment of the extremest por- tion of our Southern brethren, is now bat- tling for ascendency over the publie mind of the whole country! I need not argue that such a doctrine is utterly indefensible. Every Republican in this district, almost every America * ; and old line Whig, and large portion of the Democrats within my; mains for the different Motions of the ooun- knowledge, regard it as totally unsound, try to unite on a route which will be most It is perfectly obvious that it is a wide beneficial to the whole. Between an ez- und extreme departure from the prin- treme Northern route, an extreme Southern ciples of those great and good men who 'route, and a middle union route, no fair made the Constitution and administered it 'minded man, who wishes the common good in their daj and generation. As we have of the entire country, can hesitate for a mo- seen, the doctrine at that time was to leave ment. It is plain that that great worK slavery as they found it in the States, but should be laid down upon a line as near as to exclude it from the Territories, and may be about the center of territory and to keep it excluded- The pretended doc- population. When thus constructed, it will trine now is that the Constitution estab- be a band of iron, uniting the Eastern and lishet slavery in the Territories, and that , Western halvs of our continent. When the power to exclude it does not exist, either thus constructed, the commerce of Asia and in Congress, or in the territorial inhabitants, the Pacific Ocean will pour through this or elsewhere on earth! The contrast' here ! great artery, and diffuse itself by collateral is too bold and plain to admit of cf>vil or branches through all the North, through all evasion. Well did that great Southern 'the South, and to every nook and corner of statesman, Mr. Cloy, say of this extreme the whole country. It appears to me that Calhoun doctrine, in 1850, that, " If he had St. Louis, by its central position and great no: heard that opinion avowed, he should commercial importance is the proper point have regarded it an one of the most extraor-\rf departure for that line of road which dinary assumptions, and the most indefen- should be continued thence to the Pacific > tible position that was ever taken by man!" Ocean. Now, I wish strongly to draw the Thus we see that un extreme pro-slavery! attention of the peonle of this district to tbc opinion, utterly unknown in the conserva-'fact that that same pro-slavery ex- tive age of tho country, has grown up in a 'treme of which I have just spoken, certain portion of the Southern mind, and and which is now in control of this that a new, extrepie and monstrous pro- government, is equally extreme in ilt slavery doctrine has been invented to ac- ideas in reference to the construction of commod&te that chancre of opinion. That'tfm great national road. That extreme, as doctrine is now at the head of the Federal the whole country knows, is committed to Government; and planted in these high the construction of this road upon our places of influerce. it i< exerting its whole ' South- Western border. In pursuit of thi^ power to change the entire law and policy scheme, and under the lead of those extrem- of slavery, to debauch the public opinion ! ists, a few years ago our government paid of the country, and to sweep the Constitu- ten millions of dollars for what was known as tion from the anciont moorings, where it the Gadsden Purchase a barren strip of was left by the jrreat statesmen who framed territory taken from th Northern border of it ! 'Mexico, but supposed to furnish an eligible PACIFIC RAILROAD. route to the Pacific. The people should be I will next offer a few remarks upon a! aroused to this subject. They should look subject which oueht to fix the attention of the' it square in the face, no matter to what wholo people, and especially of those living Iparty they may belong. If this road should in this portion of I'linois. I allude to the con- be constructed upon our Southern frontier truction of a ruilroadto'the Pacific Ocean, upon what Col. Benton called the "disunion The feasibility of this enterprise, at an esti- border route," instead of the "central un- mated co*t of aboi>t sixty millions of dol- ion route," every body must see that it lars, is placed beyond dotibt. It only re- would not only be detrimental to the great (7) interests of the We*t, and to the great inter- I draw the attention of the people to it, ai es ta of the common country aa a whole, but an evil which should be corrected by the that it would also bare a direct and power- ballot box. ful disunion tendency. PUBLIC AMALGAMATION. Aa to amalgamation of the white and ne- There ii another subject to which I wish'S raoe "> m ? idea8 are clear and strongly to call the attention of the people. I 1 re K Md **"" inmixture of negroes and I allude to the public expenditures. Be- white8 * 8 odioua Md detestible. Aiy read- yond aU doubt we have fallen off amaiingly in of the natural law is, that in this respect from the simplicity and economy of our God has P Iaced * " U S h wal1 and a dee P fathers, both in our private and in our pub-, ditoh " between these races; and my opinion liolife; and candor requires me to say thati is that an 7 act of amalgamation of the two, this applies in a great measure to all par-| whether in the marria S e relation or other- ties, because it proceeds in a great degree wise U viciou8 > brutal and debasin S- out of the general habit of the times. We: ABOLITION. have grown luxurious and extravagant. Aj ^ 8 to abolition, I will say that it is a mat- spirit of dashing interprise, speculation : ter whicb rest8 ^^ the pc " ople of the Statea and recklessness is abroad among us. The! where B i ave ry exists. The Constitution left thorough paced regularity and prudence of' 8lavery where it fouad lt _ t hat is, under the olden time is growing unfashionable, i state Iaw8> ^ flu bj ec t to the disposal of and government, in common with individ- | the people of the slaveholding States. No uals, has caught tb.e general infection of the power exist8 ^ the Fe der;il Government to times. It is true 4 however, that the longer i aboli , h 8javer y ia tbe States, and of course any party remaps in power, the more cor- Q0 pwwer exi8t8 in one State to abo ii 8h it in rupt and extravagant it will become. r another . Slavery in any State, therefore, i. w.ll say noting of the small scale of ex- !solely and eic i U8ive iy uniier the control of penditure^ under our early Presidents. As SU(jh Sute The people of a slaveholding proof^of, our rapid downward tendency of < Mate may abolit)h it if they 8 , e fit> or they late, \ w m merely state that the last yearly COMl -i u outside of a slaveholdiag year of Pierces oost about sixlyfive mil Stat6} w abolish slavery in such State; but lions, the first year of Buchanan's *b^ e peop i c O f any given alave State, may do eighty millions, and the present year about witfa is j U3t w h a t they please, one hundred millions. At the sam^ rnte our' government will soon cost several hundred ' ox * millions annually. It is true that the gov-^ As to the general position which I occupy, arnment expense should increase in a cer-jit must be obvious from whut I have already tain degree in consequence of th growth t said. It is to stand upon the old conserva- of the country; but it should not double and live principle as I receive it from the fath- more than Double, in eight years. I care ers of the country opposed to the fanatical nottc/ereth9 whole responsibility of this|extreme of the North, and the fanatical ex- great expenditure may lie. I care notjtreme of the South. This is the principle that a Republican House of Representatives! which presided at the birth of the Consti- mny have btood connected with a portio n !tution. This is the principle which the of it. I look upon it as an evidence of|whole country stood upon in the days of corrupt extravagance, no matter from what: Washington and Jefferson; and this is the source it may have proceeded; and as such principle which the conservative masses of . (8) tb pepl North and South most yet stand npon. What can be plainer, what oan address it- elf more powerfully to the common sense of the whole people, than that those great principles in which our constitution and union wero founded, must continue to be cherished as the best means of preserving the Constitution and Union? Oan we find a safer ehart for the navigation of the per- ilous sea that lies before ua than the one which was left s by the builder* of our no- ble ship of state, than the one which in their hands guided that ship so safely and HO prosperously? Great God! have we already fallen upon that decay of virtue which marks the ruin of nations! Are we ready to turn our backs npen all the glorious monuments of the past? Are we ready to extinguish in our hearts those great principles which burned in the bosoms of the men who gave us our liberties baptised in blood? We say that they are immortal. We say that the work of their bunds is the noblest that ever was wrought by any generation of men in any age or country of the world. Their names are a theme of praise upon every tongue. The whole country turns with ven- eration to their tombs. Are we dead to i their virtues? Are we dead to thf princi- ples in which they established and adminis- tered our government, and which they have handed down to us as a precious heritage, to be preserved for our children and our children's children? Are we ready to aban- don that heritage to abandon the position they occupied, and to yield to an extreme fanaticism, whether in the North or in the South? Are we ready to bow down to that violently eBtreme pro-slavery doctrine of Mr. Calhoun, by which our constitution be- comes an engine for the establishment of slavery in every foot of American tftjrri- . . - torj, by which the moral sense of the whole country will become corrupted, and by which all the opinions, examples and doc- trines of .the fathers are to be torn up and trampled under foot? No! No! is the sponta- neous answer which leaps from every patri- otic heart. The great masses of the peo- ple will rush to no such an extreme. They will stand upon the great conservative doc- trines they have received from the immortal statesmen who framed our institutions. Vo- ters of the Eighth Congressional District! I stand now upon those doctrines and appeal to your reason, your conscience, and your patriotism. I appeal to you to rally to that platform of principles which were laid down by those great builders who were fresh from the battle-fields of the revolu- tion! I speak for the country and the whole country. I am not conscious that there is one particle of sectional feeling in my heart. Looking across Mason & Dixon's line upon the sunny South, I behold the land of my nativity and my early child- hood. Not in all my pant is there a memo- ry more holy than that which gathers around the green hills of old Kentucky! May my right arm be withered ere I lift tongue or hand against her fair fame, her security and happiness! The old battle-field of Eutaw Springs, in Soutn Carolina, brings the same mot i m to my mind that is kindled by Bun- ker Hill, in Massachusetts. As the men of that time were one in feeling, so we will be again, when we return to the principles in which they founded and administered our government. These were the principles of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and the whole array of heroes and sages who made that age at least equal in luster to any recorded in the history of the world. Up- on these principles I stand for the votes of this District. ' ' '