Class E, 4 5 >: Book. The Doctrines of the Democratic and Abolition Parties Con- trasted.— Negro Equality.— The Conflict between "Higher Law" and the Law of the Land. SPEECH OF HOI. JERElIiH 8. BLACK, At the Hall of the Keystone Club, in Philadelphia, OCTOBER 24, 1864. Judge Black began by saving that he would promise the audience no amusing entertainment. These were serious times, and he would give some of the grave reasons which male him believe that the security of indipidual rights and the safety of the country itself from utter destruction, depended on the el-ction.of General McOlellan, Political contests, he proceeded to say. are not wtat they used to be. In former times we contende:' on iwints of policy on which we supposed the intertst of the country depended more or less; now our cp ponents themselves tell us that the life of the Go vtrni ent hangs on the issue. They are right. The life of this Government is the liberty of the people aad if they succeed in destroying liberty, the Go- vernment will be dead— dead without even the hope 0it resurrection to a future life. m' The enemy we now have to contend against is the Abolition party ; that tody of which the original , nucleus was a little gang in New England, who met periodically to curse the Constitution and j blaj^pheme the Christian religion. It was (mall at tirst; but it has since giown with such portentous rspidiiy that its influence i now overshadows this whole continent There \ wag another organization which, for a brief while professed to be acting in concert with the Aboli- tionists while faintly dlsarproving their principles. But the fusion hag become perfect— the whole *■ J^' of the coalition, from the crown to ^^^^ ..^.i thoroughly saturated with Abolition doc '^^ ; 1 Republican now dares to dissent from the ." I measures. Abolitionism is omnipotent in Congrefs '/ it controls the Executive with absolute swey- it commands an army whose numbers are counted 1 y hundreds of thousands— it Is preying at will upon the prostrate body of the nation. We must look fdirly into the face of that party if we wish to see the features of our enemy. Between that party and the Democratic party there exists such a diversity of sentiment, opinion and principle , as never before separated men in any country or any age of the world. We disstnt from them and they from us, upon every political subj- ot— in every question of fundamental law that ever was raised, and upon very many which were never consid- ered debatable by any body but themselves. There is not a sentence, line or letter in the Constitution, from the words • 'We the people, ' ' at the beginning of the preamble, (!own to the signature of ' George ■Waghicgton, " at the foot of the Instrument, which they have not either cOTistrupd away altoerether, or elseptrt.npon it sotne interpretation entirely new and totally at variance with that which we always sup prsed to be the true one. We are aa wide asunder as the poles of the earth John Hampden did not differ fe much from Charles I nor M illiam Tell from Oessler, nor the Congress of 1776 from the ministry of George the Third. Nay ; the -most orderly, humane and anti revolutionary Frenchman that inhabited Paris In 1789. could not have differed from Robespierre about the use of the guillotine, more entirely than we differ from the Abolitionists ooncerningr the whole purpose and ob ject of t*»e Federa' Government. They are not opposed merely to the views held by US, their present antagonists; they are equally hostile to all the opinions entertained by the public men who preceded them. The principles of Ad ministration which ihey have introduced have been denounced and utterly repudiated by all the states men who ever he!d rfiBce under thi» Feder.al Govern ment. from the beginning of Washington's time to the end of Buchanan's. If the Abolitionists are riirht, then cur whole history is but the record of one great blunder; and all the men who had any connection with the Government, previous to 1861, were ' 'fools as gross as ever ignorance made drunk ' ' No two political systems, framed for different countries or for different time3, have ever been more dissimilar than the Government of the United States as administered before 1861 and the same Government as administered since that time. Let us loot, for a moment, at some of the points : The Abolition theories which concern the rela- tions of the States to the General Government and to one another, conlound all our preconceived ideas np»n that subject. We supposed the United States to be a federative system, created by sovereign States, for the simple and sole purpose of watching over their common defense and general welfare. To that end. jurisdiction was given to the Federal Go I "* -nment over certain plainly speoifled classes of (ibjeots, and every other species of power was jxpresely withheld It was a political corporation strictly limited by its charter. It was not only agreed, but sworn to, that the affairs of each State should be controlled by its own will. Whether tiie States should use this right properly or improperly, wisely or unwisely, was, m our opinion, nobody's business but their own. By the unequivocal terms of the compact they had a right to make their local laws bad or good, just as they pleased, and it is as well known as any fact in history that the Union could not have been made on any other terms. But, the Abolitionists deny this vital principle so bitterly and so violently that every citizen, who presumes to hold, is, In their estimation, a . traitor. The great characteristic of their creed is the'claim they make for the people of one section to control the other in their local affairs. They hold it to be not only the right, but ihe bounden duty of the Federal 3overnment to dictate to the States their whole system of domestic admlrilptrarlon. This Is so clear in their opinion that any State which refuses to modify its local laws when com- manded to do so by the President, is guilty fef the most awful crime that man can commit; a crime for which the contumacious State deserves to be punished by having its fields laid waste, its towns burnt, its men butchered, its women and children driven houseless, homeless and starving into the woods. And it is announced upon the highest authority among them— the chief of their party, himself— that this awful scourge of war is not to be dlsoontinaed until the States now subjected to it, shall abandon the laws approved by themselves and adopt others which are more to the liking of the President and the party which supports him in other States. To show how emphatic and thorough their contempt is for our doctrine of State Bights, they think it perfectly proper to tear a sovereign State into pieces by main force and cast the bleeding parts to enemies and strangers, whilst they are yet warm and quivering with the agony of the separation. If one- tenth of the voters in a State shall feel or feign belief in this doctrine, that shall be a saving faith for which the small minority is to be rewarded by giv- ing them absolute and uncontrolled dominion over the lives, liberties and property of the other nine- tenths, who cannot see it in the same way. Submission to the General Government in all things is not merely a condition of peace with the States already at war; coercion for the same pur- pose is extended to States in which there is no war, legal or actual. In Maryland, for example, a de- cree has been made that the State Government shall be wholly revolutionized. Four- fifths of the people are, without doubt, opposed to the change, but by means of brute force, and a system of test- oaths, prescribed at Washington, the State Govern- ment is entirely taken out of the people's hands, and all political power put into the keeping of not only a small, but a venal and false minority, which alone is permitted to vote, ihts is not a republican Government, but to all intents and purposes ^n aristocracy, the Government of a few, and it will not be the fault of the system if it does not turn out to be an aristocracy of hypocrites and thieves. The effect of this contempt for State rights, is seen, not only in Southern States, or States on the borders of the South. In Pennsylvania last year, and only a few days ago in Indiana, companies, battalions, and regiments of Feoeral soldiers, without a pretense of right, poured their votes into the balljtbax to overwhelm the true voice of the people at a State election. ^ Such is the contrast between us on one subject.© There is another upon which the divergency of our views Is equally striking. It happens, by the per- mission of God's providence, that two distinct races of human beings have been thrown together on this continent. All the mental characteristics as well as the physical features and color of one race, make It lower In the scale of creation than the other. I need not say how much lower, for I suppose there la no man here who does not know the difference between a white man and a negro. The negroes themselves are per- fectly coDgolous of their inferiority ; nobody but an Abolitionist ever thinks of denying it. The white men asserted their supremacy in this country, astheyt^id everywhere else in the world. They founded a nation, and framed a government to be controlled exclusively by themselves and their own posterity . They agreed, because it pleased them to do so, that they would share their privileges upon certain conditions with other persons of Caucasian blood who might settle among them, but they were not bound to take Tartars, Mongols, Chinese or Negroes into their political partnerFhip , and they declared that they never would. They claimed, (somewhat proudly it maybe,) their eld and hard- won right of domination, and gave the negro— not political power, or the right of ruling— but only such protection and kindness as were due, in a govern ment of laws, to a subject and inferior race. The Abolitionists look upon all this with perfect horror. They assert everywhere, in season and out of season, the natural right of the negro to political, legal and social equality. Their theories of mis cegenation are too disgusting to be mentioned. Even by men in high authority, negroes are insult- ingly preferred to white men. The Attorney General has decided (conscientiously, no doubt) that lif groes are citizens — a part of the Government — and therefore capable of holding office and exercising public authority over us, as, in point of fact, many of them do at this moment. In the States thoroughly abolition ized they are allowed to vote, and the votes Of negrres added to the votes of white men with negro principles, can trample down the true white man who is faithful to the rights of his race. Notcontent with doing this in their own States, they extend their process of iquaiization'into other States , where they use what they call the war power, to rob the white man of his property, and bestow It on the negro. In all their measures, military and olvil, in the new Territories and the old States, you see this pervading principle at work, stripping white men of the rights, inherited from their ancestors, and clothing negroes with powers and privileges they never possessed before . Now, if the African race could be elevated so as to make it, in fact and in truth, the equal of the white race, then we would lose nothing by the pro- posed equality of the two. But that is not possible, and our opponents know it as well as we do. A negro will still be a negro in spite of proclamations . You can degrade the white man to the level of the ^egro— that is easily done — but you cannot lift the negro up to the white man's place. All close and in- timate connexion, political or social, tending to pro- duce equality between two nations or races natu rally differing from one another, has the effect of levelling, not upward but downward j and the degradation of the superior nation does not stop even at the point origlaally occupied by the lower one — the amalgam has aU the vice and weakness of both, without the strength or the virtue of either. "What would have been the history of this continent if its white inhabitants had gone down to the level of the nexroes two hundred yearf agol And what will be its future history if we now submit to the same degradationl Respect for the memory of our ancestors; fidelity to the rights of our ctildien ; our own interests and the interests of the civilized world, require us to keep and main- tain this Government in the hands of white men, and to repudiate with abhorrence every measure wl ich is calculated to bring upon us the shame and the in- famy of a voluntary descent to negro equality. Aga.m : the Democratic party believes in law ard erder— in the regular administration of justice by properly appointed tribunals— in trial by jury aid the great writ of habeas corpus. We knew very well how sadly the people must suffer without these inesti- moble institutions. We had read In the history of other countries how men were murdered, androbaed and kidnapped for the want of them; andwh-nwe saw in our own Constitution a provision that no man snould be deprived of life, liberty, or property with- out due process of law, we were sure that we under- stood 4he fuUmeanlDK, and appreciated the mighty value of those sublime though simple words But, according to our opponents, we were utterly wrong. Their chief law officer has told us not only that the President, without any process of law. may order a citlzsn to be arrested whenever he pleases, but he may delegate the power to otherf , and they to others again, until all the favorites and minions of the Administration shall have unlimited control over all who presume to doubt its infallibility ; and this power to deprive freemen of their liberty to b3 accompanied with the power of suspending the pTiYilene ot habeas corpus, and of abrogating at the same time all other laws which might afford their victim a chance of redress. This is not a mere ab- stract theory of the Abolitionists; they have practiced upon it to such an appalling extent, that more innocent persons have been kidnapped and shut up in prison during three years of their rule than all the sycophants, and strumpets, and spies about the Court of Louis XIV. could Induce him to send to the Bastile in the whole of his long and cruel reign If any privilege was guarantied to the American people we supposed it to be the right of discussing public affairs by means of free speech and a free press . But here, again, the antagonism is perfect. Abolitionism has suppressed two hundred and fifty newspapers (I think that is the number) by arbi- trary orders, executed at the point of the bayonet, or by mobs hissed on to their brutal work by the general approbation of the whole party. Perhaps, the most curious oC all their notions, is. that the Constitution is binding at some times, and at others Is a mere dead letter; their oath -to support it is to be kept on certain occasions, but dis regarded wheaeyer It confines their powers within limits which they think inconveniently narrow. The application of this principle is worse, il possible. than the principle itself, for tiey withdraw the protection of the fundamental law at the very moment wbea the safety of the people most imperi ously requires it. When civil war breaks cut- when political rancor becomes fiercest— when party raee runs highest— when aggressions upon Ute, liberty, and property are most likely to occur— then it is that thev remove all legal re Btraints from the bad passions of men. What seems worse yet, they hsld that an insurrection in one State abrogates the Constitution in another, which is five hurdred miles off, and perfectly peaceable. As yet, they have tried this upon as only in time ot war, but all their arguments would fit just as well for peace. If a war policy may be sapported bv kid napping citizens and suppressing newspapers, what is t3 Madera peace policy from being sustained in the same way T .^urely, no sane man will prevcnd that it is not as necessary to preserve the peace, as it is to prolong a war . For the system of laws which our forefathers made and gave to us, they substitute that "necessity" which the common judgment and crmmon sense 0' mankind in all ages and countries has branded with odiuaa as ' 'the tyrant's plea. ' -' No despot ever a*keJ for power to do more than what he might decide to oe necessary, and nothing more is needed to warrant the most infa nous outrages. When Charles I deliberately perjured himself, he said, and said truly encugli, that political necessiti''s. cre- ated by a civil war, had driven him to it. When Cromwell devoted all the inhabitants of Drog- heda, men, women and children, to indiscri- minate butchery, necessity was the plea upon which be justifiid nis brutal order, and when he drove the Parliament of Eagland out of their places, it wa? not, as he said, because "the Lord had no further ■need of them, " but because the needs of his own tyrannical rule required their absence and the over- throw of their just authority. When Nero threw the Christians into the arena to be devoured by wild beasts ; when he commanded them to be sawed asun- der, to be sewed up in sacks and cast into the Tiber, or to be covered with pitch and then burnt together in great piles, he and all his loyal supporters pronounced it to be necessary ; for Christi anity was, in their eyes, "a pestilent sapersti lion'' which might give serious trouble to the power of the Caesars. Before tnat time Herod of Jndea had heard that a child was born in Bethle ham, who would one day be King of the Jews; anti he believed that his government could not live unless that child was destroyed. But, neither he nor any tf his provost marshals knew exactly what child it was, and that created the necessity of killing them all. The decree went forth, and it was no doubt executed with all proper zeal and right loyal devotion. There was lamentation and weeping and woe in Rama— Kachel mourned lor her children and would not be comforted, because they were not. But if Rachel had been an Aboli- tion woman, she would no doubt have been very ,^re»tly comforted by considering that the slaughter of the innocents was ' 'ti'ce sary to preserve the life of the Government ' ' Our fathers said that no such power as this should be wielded here by any mortal man. They declared that all public necessities sbould be determined by the law They defined the offenses which it was necessary to punish — the evidence that should be required to convict — the tribunals that should weigh the proof— the form of the trial, ard the quantum of' the penalty Then they decreed that all their offlaers i hould take a sol- emn oa'h to be registered in Heaven's chancery, ne'fer to know any kind of necessity but the one great supreme necessity of obedience to the laws In our view the Government of this country is the Constitution and laws; whosoever sustains them most faithfully is the beet and truest supporter of the Governnjent. But Abolitionism introduces an- other standard of fidelity. Acquiescence in the violation of law is with them the grand test of pa- triotism, and every citizen who has such a weakness for the old system of law as to complain of an oflicer for trampling it under foot, is guilty cf what tney call 'treasonable language" or "disloyal practices. " We were, and are, in favor of a strong govern- ment— that is, a strong Constitution and strong laws During the period of Democratic ascendancy the Government, in that sense, was powerful enough to shield every American citizen from every (jpecieg of wrong. It brought securir.y to his fire- side, spread its guardianrhip around him wherever he went, and, like a protecting angel, it hovered over him and watched him while he slept. Now it is so weak oontemp'ible and powerless that it. can- not save the most upright manor the most virtuous woman from being kidnapped even ly its own officers at any hour of the day or night. This wide antagonism of principle carried out In measures so aggressive upon public liberty, produces the moral effect whi ih might be expected. Pohtioal institutions so administered cannot have the love of the people who are oppressed by them. Tiose who rule in taii fasuion will infallibly fl ad themselves where Macbrth was In his tlu a^e. Terrorism may quiet many, and the venal can always be bought, but tho.e things which should accompany a free government, "As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends It must not look to have; but in their stead Curses not loud, but deep, moutb honor, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not. ' ' The indignation which swells up in the great soul of the American Democracy may be easily allayed ; but not so tne animosity that rankks In the' minds of our enemies. It is easy for a magnani-* mous people to suffer and forgive, but ' 'they never pardon who have done the wrong. ' ' The Abolition ■ Ists hate us with all their strength, and all their Bouls ; and they give expression to that sentiment in language perfectly unequivooaL One of their leading Senators, in a speech at Washington, advo- cated the Introduction there of the treatment which tbe opponenta of the Administration received in Kansas, namely, to shoot tbem down. Another de dared on the floor of the Senate, itself, when fpeak- U3K of certain men who had been unlawfully arrested, and kept in prison for upwards of a year, that, in his opinion, they were dealt with only too mildly, and if he had been allowed to have his way he would have hanged them; in other words, he would not only have kidnapped them, but he would have murdered them into the bargain. An admiral of the navy, born in Oonneoticut. publicly ixpiffSid his willingness to turn the arms of his men, if necesjary, against the peo '•pie of his native State. The ocoaslo which br u^lt this forth nas a pendisg eleoti)a l- th« btate c f C innectlout at whleh the people were mak- ing an effort to choose a Govtrnor of their own b- toe t eaBona')le means of voting for aim at th* j-ol a TheOeneral-in Chief of the army, (Hal- leck, ) in a letter deliberately written for pub- lication, asserted that the army would crush tbe southern rebellion first and then put its heel on ' 'the copperheads of the North ' ' A new species of ekquence has been introduced into nearly all their public discussions. Democrats are constant ly reminded that they should be thankful for the mercy which has let them live so long It is £0t persuasion that hangs upon the lips of their orators; they bring down the cheers of their audience by the visions they paint of ropes, gibbets, and daggers, and when one of them announces that all Democrats are traitors , and he longs to put the knife up to th" handle in the heart of every traitor , the sentiment is echoed bya deafening shout. Even the minister" (or those -vvh) call tlemsetves ministers) of the christian religion are suborned Into the service of this ferocious Moloch. Christ said that every professed follower of his, who hated his brother, gave conclusive evi- dence that he was a liar and a murderer. But the Abolition preachers— ' 'those hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw"— are not ashamed to avow the most intense malignity against all who differ from them. They make their conventicles ring with de mands for the extermination of men, women, and children, by millions, through half a continent, and even the sacred oflfice of prayer, as they conduct it, becomes a long howl for blood. Is it any wonder that cnder thymic of such a party, all the joints of society should be dislocated! They have hopelessly divided the country, not geographical) y, but morally— they have not sundered t^e territory, but they have cloven the heirt of the nation in two The limits by whioh they have sepa- rated us, is not any natural boundary, but a bound - ' ary created by the sentiments whioh they have forced between us— not the Potomao, the Ohio, and the Miisiesippi, but the far more impassable streams, which, according to Milton, water the dreary abode ot the damned : * 'Abhorred Styx, th« flood of deadly hatb. Sad Acheron of toEBow, black and deep — Cocytus named of LAM iI^TATION, loa.. Heard on the rueful .o'r-am ; fierce Phlej^ethOBl Whose wavesoftorrentfire inflame with raok " It is perfectly manifest that the principles and measures of the Abolitionists are, and must of ne- cessity be, incompatible with the safety of a govern- ment like ours. They put it to a work which it was not intended for, and which it cannot do withoat destroying itself If you have a threshing macaine and place it under the charge of a man who uses It as a break r of anthracite coal, it must infallibly fly to pieces. So the operations of your political system must be oonfioed to the purp ses designed by its framers, or else you must take the Inevitable conse- quence of breaking it up. The more exquisitely the several parts of it are adapted to its one legitimate purpose, the more certain It is to be utterly ruined by applying it to another. Nor does it make any differenc ? whether the new object proposed be In itself good or bad. Indeed, any government, however constituted. Is perfectly sure to wreck those laws whioh are tha essential parts of its structure, whenever it attempts to work out the object tf some ' higher law, ' ' which does not properly belong to it. All the pages of history are covered with lessons which teach this truth. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the rulers of Europe took it nto their heads that the great paramount interest which they must look after was tiie spiritual welfare of the people ; their temporal prosperity was nothing compared to their eternal salvation. They resolved, therefore, to introduce into their governments the Higher Law of true religion. Bat what came of iti The Higher Law trampled down all other laws, and tore the whole framework of society into fragments. Rebellion, Insurrection and civil war became the uni- versal fashion— millions were slaughtered ; France was convulsed ; G-ermany was laid waste and almost depopulated ; the city of Prague, which began the thirty years' war with two hundred thousand inhab- itants, closed It with less than four hundred human beings Inside of her walls. All the land in Ireland was confiscated four times over, and for ages to- gether generation after generation of her best and oravest men were ruthlessly murdered. England offered no terms of peace except upon the aban- donment of the Catbolio faith, which the Higher Law pronounced to be false. But though Ire- land was many times conquered; was trampled down again and again, subjugation brought no peace ; It was only civil war g ine to seed. Peace and security, and justice and order never came back until England slowly opened her eyes to the truth, and acknowledged that the whole doctrine of the Higher Law was a great, oomltigated, mon- strous, bloody lie. We have had some experience with this same kind of Highei Law in our own country. Ten or twelve years ago certain Yankee politicians, and their hum- ble imitators in other parts of the Union, forming together a very powerful party, proposed tne prac- tical disfranchisement of Catholics and foreign- bom citizens. In place of the Constitution they wanted the Higher Law of a Protestant and exolnsively native domination. New England pretended to be in an agony of terror, lest the Pope and the Oatholio churoh would do her some grlevious harm; every member of the Massachusetts Legisla tare but one, was sworn in secret to support the Higher Law; a lying priesthood hounded on the ig- norant crowd, just as they are doing now; churches were burned ; nunneries were assaulted ; Catholics were driven from the polls and run through with pltohforljs. If that party had got hold of the Fede ral Q-overnment, as it seemed at one time very like- ly to do, and put its Higher Law in full operation, civil war would have been as certain as it is now. You can easily conceive how other applications of the principle would worli in any given case. For Instance : The municipal law of all our States has the protection of private property for one of its great objects ; it allows the rich man to keep what he has, and poverty Is forced to be content with Its ' loop'd and windowed raggedness. " But the Higher Law ot Christian charity commands the rich to divide with the poor. It is, besides, a great public evil, unjust and unnatural, that one person should be compelled to struggle for the bare necessaries of life, while another, no better than he, is rolling in the luxuries of superfluous wealth Bat suppose we were visited by an act of Congress, or an Executive proclamation in favor of the Higher Law, backed by an army with banners, to enforce an equal division of goods and lands, can any body doubt that civil commotion would be the conse- qtiencel The foundations of order would be broken up ; the rich would refuse to part with the half of their property; the poor would think themselves licensed to plunder it all, and the agents of the Higher Law would do as they have done elsewhere; rob both classes alike. Apply these plain and simple principles to Aboli- tionism, In doing so let us concede that party to be (what it is not) orthodox on every subject but that of African slavery . Assume, also, that the relation of ., master and servant, In the Southern States, is wrong morally and religiously. Nevertheless, It Is a "fixed constitutional fact," that the United States are furnished with no legal power to interfere with it ; and any attempt by them to do so is ipso facto destruction of th« Federal Government, for while It is engaged in the execution of the Higher Law it cannot perform the proper functions actually as Signed to it by those who made it. We are therefore without a Government; anarchy spoliation and bloodshed, conflagration, terror and tears, come in the place of Government and law. Every one who reflects will admit, that if this perversion of the Government to the purposes of Abolitionism, or any other purpose Inconsistent with Its laws, had taken place at a former period, or under an earlier President, the same disastrous con eequences must have followed. The time never was when we could run our vessel on such a rook as that without making It a total wreck. Nor Is there a single man, with understanding enough to raise him one degree higher than an idiot, who does not know, that if a Democrat had been elected when Mr. Lincoln was, the caree' of the country would ftill have been onward and upward ; asfr;?, united and glorious as tvei It is clear beyond possible doubt, that the Ameri- can people had their choice in 1860 between the gov- ernment of their fathers, with continued peace and prosperity on one hand, and on the other a Higher Law inconsistent with the Government, accompanied by a train of devilish horrors It was blind folly to expect that the law and the Higher Law would reign together ; for Higher Law will ' 'bear no brother near the throne ' ' Its ' mission is to tread down whatever opposes it. In every age, and In all countries. It has been In- tolerant, dogmatic, demoniac in temper, inexorable in Its demands, recklessof all ustratnt and ever ready to carry Its ends by mT 4 force • It disdains all com- promise— it carries no olive branch— it takes both hands to wield its merciless sword. It makes its ap- pearance on every theatre of its action with threats of slaughter ; itputicn thaport of Mars. ' 'And at its heels Leashed in like hounds, fire, sword, and famine Crouch for employment " Our present experience is enough, and more than enough, to prove all this . While the Federal Go- vernment was administered according to its own laws, and while its existence was threatened with no seri- ous danger of Higher Law, our country wan prosper- ous beyond example. Her ways were ways of plea- santness, and all hf r paths were peace. When the Abolitionists came into power, disaster, disgrace and discord came with them ; a: d final ruin flero ly drove her ploui^h share through the natijr. By their fruits ye shall know them. But we ought to have known this without learn- ing It In the dear school of experience. We were sufficiently warned. Every statesman of all par- ties and sections who had a hand in making the Government, told us that it would last so long, and so long only , as it was conQned to the proper and legitimate purpose lor which they intended it. We were told, not by tne Democracy only, but by the chiefs of the great party opposed to us. that the success of Abolitionism would be fatal to the Union, and peacfe of the nation. Moreover, the Abolitionists themselves did not deny that the over- throw of our political system was their object ; their exprees pur^os*, ttelr del berate aim. — Their chief priests declared that they could reach their purpose only by marching over the ruins of the Federal Government and the Christian Churoh. The greatest of their orators claimed it as his higfiest honor that he was not only an Infidel to the religion, ' but a traitor to the Constitution of his country. One of their principal newspaper organs hab'tuilly de- nounced the Federal eompa«t as a ooyenant with *lmplger, Iracundus, Inezorabills, acer; Jura negat sibi nata; nihil non arrogat armis. [Horace, hell, while another mallgnea tho fliig of the Union as the emblem of a lie Another fhlning light of the party gave a practical exposition of its creed. He was a coarse, low ruffian, who for years had followed no business but that of a horse tblef, and he had committed many base and treacherous murders in the Western country. He went to Canada, and there, with a few confederates, he planned a conspiracy to overthrow the Federal Government and conquer the States, an enterprise in which he hoped to succeed mainly by organizing among the negroes a general system for the butchery of their masters. He sneaked into a peaceful Virginia town Aid at midnight began to put the H'gherLiiw in force ky stealing the public prop*rty and shooting dcwn the unarmed and defenceless people — He was taken and hanged ; but it seldom hap- pens 'hat the greatest benefactors of the human race receive such posthumous honors as the Abolition- ists bestowed on John Brown. They amounted al- most to an apotheosis. From poets and orators, from clergymen and politicians, from senators, governors and statesmen of every class, from primary meetings and legislative bodies, the expressions of admiration and sympathy • were boundless. Ever since that time, the most popular music they have, consists of hymns to his memory, and hallelujahs to his great name. Whence came all this c-cstatic reverence for the character of suchamani It was not given because he was a p.urderer; other men havecommitted murders with- out being worshiped for it. It was not merely because he was a thief, for they have among them many others, who have stolen on a far more magnificent Boalo than he did. No, they loved him because he was like themselves, a deadly enemy to the Government, Constitution, and laws of the land; because he was the boldest apojtle and the earliest martyr of that Higher Law, which was destined to work out our political ruin. In their estimation he wa3 a greater man than Pretldent Lincoln himself, b-cause he preeedei Mr. Lincoln with a ''procla- mation of freedom, ' and besides it came out of him wlvhtut any ' 'pressure ' ' It may be said that i smelting the words and acts only of their ultra men. Take then the utterances of the most moderate among them ; the careful, sober minded, reflective Secretary of State. He has many times avowed his devotion to the Higher Law, and a speech of his injMassachusetts, during the canvass of I860, pledged Mr. Lincoln as a disciple of tbe same school. Did he mLsucderstand the destructive ten- dency of Higher Law 1 Did he mean peace and union and the harmony of the States 1 No; In his Ro- chester speech, he told us truly what would be the effect of his doctrine— "an Irrepressible conflict between the opposing and enduring/orces" of the North and the South, which conflict of force was to last until the Higher Law of one section should put the legal rights of the other under its feet. Now, after all the solemn warnings we received from all the great statesmen of the country, that AboUtlOLism would be fatal to our peace, and after we had heard the admissions of their own leaders, that it was their very purpose and design not to ad- minister the Government, but to destroy it, what right have we to be astonished at the prodlgiouis ruin which surrounds nsl We may lament It, in- deed, but not with amazement, for It came In th* natural course and sequence of things. But are these calamities of so long a life that they must have no end 1 Is there no chance ot restora- tloni The answer Is that our hope depends on the number of votes we poll for George B. UlcOlellan on the 8th of November. As long as the Abolitionists remain in power they will press the Higher Law and we can have no order or justice. But McOlel- lan has said that he will make the Constitution tbe guide to his path and the lamp to his feet. If he Is elected he will also swear to preserve, protect and defend that sacred Instrument against al opposers, come from what quarter they may. Those who know him have no shadow of doubt that he will faithfully keep and perform his solemn covenant with God and the country He Is not the man to play fast and loose witb Lis oath. Then the Higher Law will give place to the law of the land. I am as thoroughly and profoundly con- vinced now, that peace and Union will be the result ot DIeOlellan's election as I was four years ago that disunion and civil war would be the consequence of Lincoln's. But if the South, after all their rigftis are conceded, should still refuse to perform their duties, then the coercive power of military force will be legitimately, fairly and most effectually exerted to compel them. I am not*only no believer in the right of secession, bat I go further than even an Abolitionist would ask me to go. I deny the right of revolution. No sound man can adopt the heresy announced nj Mr. Lin- co'n when he was a member of C jngress, that ant portion of the people can overihrow ihe authority of tae »s ablished governm»ut merely b c^use they are diss-tisfled with it and desire a chaoge. Resistance m re usurpation is of course anoth;r thing— not revoiUiion but the direci reverse. That divine rev- eJa-lon Is true whic> pronounces all leoelllon againsc lawful government to be as thisln of wltch- crafs No Government can consent — no constitu- tional ruler has a riaht to consent— that the empire under his authority shall be dismembered. But a war for this purpose. If war there must be, under General McOlellan, would be conducted with an object, and that object would be the simple rt- storation of the laws to their just supremacy. Its character, as well as its object, would be changed, and the brutal atrocities which have disgraced us in the eyes of the civilized world, would be wholly dis- continued. Indeed, there Is no subject on which the character- istic diflerence between Democrats and Abolitionists displays Itself more clearly than on this question: "How shall an Insurrection or a rebellion against the laws and Government of the Union be dealt with!" Both the parties have had an opportunity to put their views on record, and both have given an 8 \ oflaclal exposition of their respfotive creeils. Per Laps I have some special knonledme of the way it was done on our side. Abolition and seceESlon began to make their mu- tual prtparations lor an Irrepressible conflict before the close of the last Administration. Of courFe,we said to the former that they ought to concede to the Soathern States all their legal rights, atd that peace, thouKh possible, was not probable on any other terms. I speak what I do know when I say that, if the President elect and his party had given an express asfnrancs and safe pledges to govern ac cording to the O>nstitution, and en all Disputed points to be guided by the exposition of the proper Judicial authority, there would and could have been no war. But they refused this flatly and defiantly, and even went so far as to have their refusal inserted in the inaugural speech. To the South we said that secession was no remedy for any evil, actual or apprehended— that a division of the country was an unendurable wrong to us— that they were bound to fight out their battle against Hiirher Law inside of the Union, with the vantage ground of the Constitution in their favor "We held that secession was a nullity, and the Fede- ral Government was as much bound to execute its laws after secession as before, and that if any con- siderable number of persons would oppose the laws by force, the military power not only might lawful- ly, but must necessarily, be used to put down such opposition . But we declared that the General Government was sovereign within its sphere— directly sovereis?Q— and acted upon Individuals, not upon States. In execut Ing the laws, State lines were no more to be re garded than county lines in the execution of State laws. Tnerefore, the force that sustained the laws, must be directed against the force that opposed them, acd the individual insurgents were personally re- sponsible for any insurrection— not the State in its corporate capacity. We repudiated utterly the whole Idea that war could be declared by the President, or by Congress, against a State. We had no right, au- thority or power to put all the people of a State into the attitude of public enemies merely because some persons within the State bad done or threatened to do certain things Inconsistent with th'r'ir Federal obligations. On the contrary, the. Innocent people — thos e who were no way concerned in the rising— were as much entitled to the protection of the Federal Government as if they lived in any other State, anl in r>.i ■ had a strong* r claim to it. for they m-ghi n«e