0011897813 HOLUNGER pH 8.5 MILL RUN F3-1543 SPEECH ''/^ .- OP HOiN. B,^ F. HALLETT, OF MASS., AT THE DEMOCRATIC RATIFICATION MEETING IN WALTHAM, MASS., FRIDAY ^ EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1S55. r :' Mr. HALLETT was loudly applauded as lie cttme upon the platform, and spoke as follows: Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens: "When we are called upon to exercise thai great prerog- ative that belongs only to American citizens, the right of free suffrage, we should well consider what are the questions that call for our deliberate action. That power which every man holds in Uiis great country — the power by his own will of declaring, as one of the majority w/io exer- cises the like power, who shall be his rulers, ■who shall make the laws by which he is to abide; tliat great pov.-er, when you come to exercise it, is one with which no man should proceed to the ballot-box without careful deliberation. Now, gentlemen, Vv-e are upon the eve of a State election, merely; and, as you know, it is the custom of political orators to say — " This coming election IS the most important one ever had in the history of the world!'' Tliis, though not generally ap- plicable to a State election, is essentially true, in one particular, of the election in Massachusetts; beo^iuse, although you are to choose only your State officers, you are taking the preliminary steps to that great division of the jieople of this country, which is to be made, North and South, Uiroughout this Union next year, in the presi- dential election. In that election, whatever may be the local names of factions, there will be but two parties; one, a party fi)r the Constitution, tJie other, a party against the Constitution; one, a party for the Union, the other, a party for dis- union; one, a sectional party composed of a sectional portion of the North, the other, a party of the whole country. Now, on which siac are J'ou going to stand ? That is the issue. And why does this great national issue arise now.' Ordinarily we go into an election — as we have for the last twenty -five years — with, the Dem- ocratic party and the Vv^hig party as the main armies on both sides contending under their well- known flags; and then we knew where we were and wliat the results were likely to be. But in ' Iho next presidential election we are to have a ■ ftew organization, or rather disorganization, of I parties. Some people, very wise in their own ; conceit, pretend to have found out that the old \ parties were corrupt, and must be broken up, and | iliat a new party must he formed, an incoryuptible \ now party of which they were to be the incon-iipti- i We (?) leaders, and which was to be made up of ' all anti-slavery men and Native Americans taken ; from the old parties. How they accomplished I this, wo saw last winter in the State house ! But i bad as the new parties both have been in prac- j ticeand legislation, OKe good result certainly has flowed from their winnowing out old parties. It [ has very much tended to purify the Uemocrali« I party, and has relieved it from a great many meu j who were impatient, selfish, dissatisfied while in I our ranks, and were always wanting to be som»- : thing other than Democrats. If there are any men , of that description within your acquaintance, wImj ! have always been a disturbing element in tlie j party, all I can say is, if they have gone over to ' the Free-Soil parly, or the Fusion party, or the Know Nothing party, just " /e< them slide.'" : [Applause.] And, moreover, if you know any ; man that you have fostered and warmed intii , political life on your hearths — one you had taken I from his unfriended boyhood, and brought up by ; your hands, carried in your arms, cherished ia I your bosoms, and trained up to manhood — and I then, by your suffrages, placed him in offices of i honor, profit, and trust, and Just when you sup- ; posed you had imbued him with Democratic prin- ciples, and made him true to his party and trua \ to his country — you find that man, after all your training, all your kindness, all your confidence, and after all the honors you had h.eaped upon him, deserting first to the "secret order'' of midnight cabals, and then betraying them and enUsting under the black flag of disunion, and there dt^- nouncing the Democratic Administration, sneer- ing at the Constitution, and proclaiming that he is ready to "let the Union slide" — I say to you, see to it that you " slide" that man clean off from all connection with the Democratic party,, now and forever!* [Loud applause.] And I pray you, brother Democrats, now, when we are once more getting to be apeaceable family,, when we can get together and talk of the Consti- tution and the Union; when we can talk of the fraternity of the northern Democracy and the southern Democracy — one great brotherhood bound together for the good of tho whole coun- try in one bond of common union; — now that we can do that without the hypocrisy, the insinua- tions, the backbiting, the pitiful side issues of men coming in with tlieir narrow prejudices, and sectarianism, and sectionalism; now, that we can do that, I say, let us shut the door and keep those men out! — never let them back into your confi- dence, to disturb our peace and betray our party ! [Cheers.] Now, then, what arc these issues that aiv * IJon. N. P. B.VNK9, of VV'althani, formerly a Democrnt, in liiuspcecliimlie iiopub'ican convention iii Maine, speak- ing of the preservation ot' tlie I'nion, said : " / am u^ing^ in a cerUritistate of ciTcumstattcst, to lst it slide !" brought before the people ? It is said, suddenly, that there are two awful terrors that are about to destroy the institutions of our country. One of these great terrors is, slavery; the other arises from the foreign-born cilizens tliat are among us. These two things, one would suppose, from the excitement that has taken place recently about tJicm, were new tilings just discovered. You would suppose, from the arguments of these people, that tlicy have made a grand discovery. They tell you that you arc; to restrict yourselves to the narrow limits of two ideas, one of anti- alavery, another of hatred to foreign born, and that there you are to stop, and have nothing to do for your country beyond them. AnfJ, from the way in wliich these two propositions arc put fjrward as the "paramount issues," it would ap- pear that these things — slavery and foreigners — had never before existed in this country. Who that listens to these declaimera would (suppose that this country, when it wont into the battles of the Revolution, was made up of foreign born and native born, and no man either knew or inquired whence another came } Who would suppose that when the Union was formed most of the original States had the institutioii of do- mestic slavery, and said not a word about it, except to agree to respect each other's rights, and send back fugitives from service? Who would sui)pose that tiiis institution of slavery, existing as a fixed domestic institution in one half the States of the Confederacy, from that day to this, a period of seventy years, with the number of adopted citizens increasing from that day to this, and with such an accession of terri- tory, such a vast expansion of our country, that you can dip one hand in the Atlantic on the one side, and the other in the Pacific on the other aide, and say, this great country is ours! — who would suppose, I say, from the clamor of these new parlies, that we had gone on in this way, and become what \ve are, and yet had foreign born and slavery all the while existing among us ? Yet such is the fact, and where has been the destruction, the ruin of our country, from aither of these sources? Is not that one fact enough to teach us that all this clamor about tliese two sources of danger, against which we are told the whole North must fuse and combine, is utterly unfounded — got up, devised, and fab- ricated with some other end in view than the good of the country? TfiE KKOW NOTHINO ISStJE. I am not going to speak at length this evening upon the question of foreign born, but merely allude to it. A great many men say that we must •make up a party exclusively against the infiu- ence of foreign-born citizens among us, and es- pecially that we must " down icilli the Pope," who lives a great way off — we do not exactly know vrhere, for he has scarcely a foothold upon which to stand from day to day; and instead of exhort- ing us, as our good old fathers did, against " the devil and his works," they tell us that there is nothing now to be feared but " the Pope and his works." [Laughter and cheers.] I suppose there are some very honest and sincere men and ■women who are terribly afraid of the Pope, and I pity them very much. I cannot but commis- erate those citizens who are so wofuUy fright- ancd at this "raM'-head and bl<)ody-b(mes." [Laughter.] I am very sorry for them, and 1 v.^t them to pluck up courago aad get cured. If they are terrified at the foreign population among us, and really fear that the Pope and the Irishmen will murder or drive all the native Americans out of the country, I really pity them again, that they are so much influenced bv such weak fears. I want to stand by them; and I can assure them that the Democratic party, whether successful or not, in this State, will certainly bft successful in the United States, and they will protect them. [Applause and hisses.] I tell you, my friends of the secret order, you may need that protection by-and-by, because under that you derive the only power that enables you to hold your secret midnight lodges, and to stand here and hiss to-night. [Loud cheers.] If it was not for that Democratic power which gives freedom to every man, instead of standing here to-night under the shield of that Constitution you are try- ing to destroy, of that Union you are trying to dissever, you would have depotism over yoa; and should you dare to hold a secret or publite meeting, and speak upon any subject, the first word or the first hiss that came from your heads would be followed by a file of soldiers carryir^ you off to some Bastile. [Loud applause, mij> gled with faint hisses.] That is what you ow« to American institutions, which you are trying to break down, by these futile attempt-'^ to incifie hatred of races, and bring np sectional issues, and form geographical parties. Upon that point, fellow-citizens, the foreien born, there is no danger. We have got only about two millions of foreign born among us. I v/ish they were doubled in our broad prairies-1 I care not how many come here if they will come and settle our lands, and bring with them thn capital better than tlie paper stocks your bank* and corporations deal in, the capital of bones, and muscles, and brains, and sound industry. [Apjilause, and a few hisses.] That i.s the capital which has built up the United States of America, which has made "the wilderness to blossom aa the rose." Here are two millions of foreign born, I say, and we have twenty-four or five millions of native born against these tv/o mil- lions, and I reckon we can take care of them! [Laughter.] I'here is no foundation for any alarm on that point. I am not willing to give in my adhesion to the Know Nothing doctrine that holds up the idea that twelve Americans cannot flog one Irishman ! [Loud laughter and applause.] Moreover, I believe that whenever it is necessary to flog anybody, to dot'end and protect this couu- try, and esjiecially if we should ever have occa- .sion to flog England, which I trust we shall not, there are no men who would go into it with suah' a hearty sliillalah relish as the Irishmen. [Ap- plause.] They would stand by you to-day oa tliey did at Bunker Hill, and at Yorktown, at New Orleans, at Monterey and Buena Vista; as they did in every battle that lias immortalized the fields that Americans have won. Let that pass. TIlC " isms" of MASSACHUSETTS. It is a little deplorable that, m the Common- wealth of IMassachusctts, the most densely-pop- ulated State, for its territory, of aii}^ in the Uniooj the State that has the most schools, the greatasi number of churches, the highest degree of edi>- cation, — it is amazing, rtwrt-i.ag, that here, in this Commonwealth, two sucli absurdities as Know Nothingism and Abolitionism should takcdeeperr root than in any other part of thi'3 country! Why is it? Arc religion and education adverse to good government ! Docs religion and educa- tion tend to make men fanatics instead of peace- ful, moral citizens, nullificationists instead of luiionists? I will not believe it. It is a perver- sion. Aljove all it is a perversion of the pulpit, in the first instance, to political purposes, and (JUt of that has grown up this great, wide-spread evil. It has been fostered by the practice of sending missionaries in the guise of ministers, and anti-slavery lecturers all over the Common- ■wnealth, who, instead of preaching the Bible, preach politics; instead of preaching the Consti- tution, preach disunion, mstead of preaching brotherly love, preach hatred of sections and races, hatred of foreign born, hatred between ■the North and the South, and stir up intolerance and all manner of uncharitableness among us. Let us banish these ideas and teachings, and come back to the doctrines of the fathers, to the ■Rijjle and the Constitution. Now, as regards this issue of hatred to foreign- born citizens, I pass it over with this single re- mark, that I can never cease to bear in mind this fact: When a man boasts that he is a native-born American citizen, and derides another man who is not native born, but who has the same rights of citizenship as he has, it seems to me that the adopted citizen may well say to the native born, •* Why, sir, you arc an American citizen by acci- dent; you were born here and could not help it. I, sir, am an American citizen by choice; I came here when my will and my mind brought me here." And, as has been well said in other Epspects, the only difference between a full-grown American citizen born here, and the other citizen who has come hero and been made a citizen, is, that, so far as concerns this new world, one of them came into the world without any clothes oji,and the other with his clothes on. [Laughter and loud applause.] Let us thank God that there is room enough here for both to work in and con- tinue to clothe themselves, and to be happy and prosperous. THE FUSION ISSUE — "THE AGGRESSIONS OF THE SLAVE POWER." But I want to touch more directly upon this qtfestion of anti-slavery — this fusion doctrine — which is now in the field as the very newest of the " new parties." Passing over this cpiestion of the terrible aggressions of the Catholics, which some very timid people are so frightened about, lot us look at this other issue — "this great and paramount issue," as Mr. Julius Rockwell calls It: " The aggression nf the slave power." Can any- body tell me what that means? Why, when Mr. Senator Sumner gets up to address an audi- ence, he asks, " Are you in favor of freedom or are you in favor of slavery?" Suppose you answer *'yes," or "no," what does itamoun't to? Sup- pose you answer we are all in favor of freedom; what then, Mr. Sumner ? " Why — why — I don't ^actly know," says Mr. Sumner, only he reads an advertisement for a runaway negro down South, and then goes off into some fine flourish of rhetoric and plenty of quotations from the el,a;5sical dictionary. But let us follow him up with the practical qnestion, " What are you going to do? Suppose you could combine all the North against the South, are you going to dissolve the Union?" "Oh, no," says Mr. Sumner; "we arc for the Ujxion, provided wc can drire slavery out of it." "But suppose you cannot drive it out of the States or out of the Territories, and keep the South in the Union, what then? Will you /orc« the South to stay in the Union and be ruled by negroes? Will you fight the South." "Yes," says Senator Wade, of Ohio, " that is just what wc mean to do — ' set the dogs on them.' " That is his fusion nnnedy. The Black Rejmblicans are to get an Abolition President and an Abolition Congress if they can, and vote the South down; and then, if the southern members retire from Congress, and refuse to be bound by it, the Abo- lition leaders are to "set the dogs on them!" Who are to be " the dogs?" Why, the farmers, the mechanics, the workingmcn, the "Know Nothings" of Massachusetts and other Abolition States, — they are to be " the dogs," to carry on a civil war with the South for the benefit of Messrs. Seward, Wade, Sumner, Wilson, and company, to make them the great men of the North. [Cries of "No! no!"] No, you will not do it; I know you will not do it; the North will never do it. I tell you, then, that this plausible question, " Are you for freedom or are you for slavery?" is not the real i.ssue. Tlie real question is, " Are you for the Constitution or against it? Are you for upholding the Government of the United States or for anarchy, revolution, and disunion?" That is the question. If you are for the Consti- tution, then you are for the existence of the Union under that Constitution just as it stands, with slavery existing, just as our fathers found it. Not as a national but as a State right institution, with the principle inseparable from the right of self-government that grows out of it, viz: the right of every political comnumity to regulaU* that matter for themselves under the Constitu- tion. That is the Democratic doctrine to settk all these sectional and geographical differences, which by agitation arc made so often to threaten the Union. There must be some point of sound conserva- tism touching the slavery question, upon which Union men North and South must agree to re- pose, or the two sections will finally irritate each other into disunion. Where shall wc find it? This new fusion or Republican party, as they miscall themselves, offer no remedies for the evils they complain of, except their insane idea of get- ting possession of the Government and conquer- ing the South ! The Democratic party propose a clear and dis- tinct settlement of all these sectional quarrels. It is" the principle of non-inleri^ention by Congress with slaverij in the States and in the Territories. That is simply the fundamental doctrine of Democratic institutions, the right of self-govern- ment, — a wonderful pacificator, if we will only apply it to the Union, theState, the Territory, th« town, the parish, the family, each in its proper sphere, each underits own proper constitution. The zealots, and fanatics, and reformers who, for twenty-five years, have been casting about for a place to rest their lever on to move the world, have settled down upon rum and negroes. The whole statesmanship of the country, they tell us, must now be fused and absorbed in tliat. If there were no alcohol, there would be no vice; if there were no social distinction between negroes and white men, there would be no slavery. Henc* all this false legislation about temperance, and all this sectional clamor at the North aliout slavery at the South. Are they not both wrong? There can be no moral reform cfTccted by mere legisla- tion, unless the legislation is just, and based on Bound constitutional principles. THE MAINE LAW ISSUE. Let us tost the modern legislation on alcohol. Instead of following the sound ]irinrif)le of our fathers, which was to regulate the evils that God Almighty had permitted to exist among them; instead of recognizing in civil government the principle God has established in divine govern- ment that man is a free agent, and appealing to his reason, these modern law-givers contend that tlie only way to make men virtuous is to destroy all temjitafions to vice — to prohibit and remove from use every good thing that can be abused to a bad use. Hence, instead of regulating the use of intoxi- cating drinks, as our fathers did for two hundred years, they undertake to make all use of it for drink, a crime. But the killing inconsistencv is that when they undertook to make it a cri7ne, they made only one half of it a crijne, punishable with the house of correction, and left the other half as free from crime as drinking water. They make it a crime for one man to stand behind a counter and take sixpence for a glass of alcohol, and they leave it as free as the most virtuous act for the other man to buy, and drink, and pay for it! [Applause.] Now, that is making one half of an act a crime, and the other half not a crime. Do you not see that that is a false principle? that you cannot de- clare that a crime which is committed by two parties, and cannot be committed by one, and make it a crime in one and declare it no crime in the other? Therefore you see why th(! founda- tion principle of this whole legislation fails; for they do not dare to come forward and say, " Punish the man who buys as well as the man who sells." I But why not, if selling is a crime ? Why, what ! would these law-temperance folks say if you I should propose to make it a crime to sell a negro ! into slavery, and no crime to buy him? If you i should decuire that the man who sells him should be punished, but the man who buys him left u)i- 1 molested to do with him as he pleased? Would I they not scout the idea? But do they not act upon J tills princijde in regard to the liquor traffic? The] man who sells and never drinks, says this Maine i law, shall be sent to the house of correction, | though he never would sell unless tempted to do so by a buyer. Rut the man who buys and drinks and commits the other half of the crime, he is only to be pitied and not to be punished at all? That is false legislation, wrong in morals, wrong in government, and therefore it has failed. For twenty years the law-temperance men have been at work drawing the strings tighter and tighter, until they had got the bow string up tight enough to strangle every dealer they could catch with a decanter on his shelf; and what has been the result? Why the tension has be(_'n so high, that the string has suddenly snapjied, and away has gone the Maine law. From Maine on the Atlantic side to California on the Pacific side the people are determined to sweef) this false legisla- tion into the sea, and now there is a reaction dan- gerous to th(! cause of temperance, even in its beautiful and healhful moral aspect. Such is the end of false and bad legislation inflicted on a peo- ple who choose their own law-makers. AKTI-SLA7ERT HAS INJURED THE AKTI-SLATERT CAUSE. Next let us examine the other evil which the Fusion Reformers are proclaiming "paramount" — the slavery question. That, too, is in pretty much the same hands, and runs on the same wrong track with the other "isms" of Lav- Temperance and Know Nothingisrn. The AboHtionists, Free-Soilers, and Anti-Sla- very men, of all shades, have been at work upon that matter for fifty years. The North began its aggressions upon 'the South from the day that Thomas Jefferson was elected President over John Adams; not for love of the slave, but lye- cause Jefferson was in a slave State, and the Fed- eral opponents of Democracy of that day played upon the philanthropy of the North to get up a {"fusion" to put down the Democracy of the South. The State of Massachusetts was the most hi- tensely Federal State in the Union, and thus inheriting the old Federal hate to JelTcrson, Louisiana, and the extension of territory, she is naturally now the most intensely abolition and southern hating State in the Union. And what has been the result of her operations against the Union based on this anti-slavery element? Her Legislature has always been meanly subservient to the dictation of a minority of political Aboli- tionists. Whether in the hands of Whigs, Dunv- ocrats, Coalitionists, or Know Nothings, any resolutions against slavery which a single Aboli- tion demagogue called for, were passed as a mattcr of course. It was thought safer to let the few demagogues have their way than to offend Vv'liat the demagogues and pulpit politicians called " tlic sentiment of Massachusetts on slavery." Heiice the demagogues and the canting pulpit politi- cians have had it all their own v/ay, and reason has not dared to stand np and combat error, Massachusetts has disgraced herself by sending volumes of anti-slavery resolutions to other States to insult them. We have had abolition preach- ing and anti-slavery lectures upon the " cause of freedom " as they call it, meaning tus;ro freedom, until now they tell us they have found the phi- losopher's stone to dissolve slavery and the Unimi together, and they are going to do it by " fusion. " And here they are, after fifty years of a sectional quarrel, kept up by a noisy, hollow-hearted fac- tion in New England, not so far advanced in negro freedom as we should have been if w; had just let the South alone upon slavery, and left each State free to carry out its own plans of melioration and gradual emancipation. RED jacket's plan OF FUSION. Why, all these anti-slavery people who taHc about "/ajic7i" to get rid of slavery, have not half the wisdom or shrewdness of the old Indian chief. Red Jacket, whose fusion plan was just about as jiractical, but more rational, and not so likely to dissolve the Union if carried into opera- tion. When Andrew Jackson was President of the United States, and the Legislatures of Virginin and Kentucky were freely discussing, like calm statesmen, the means of gradual emancipation, before the jwlilical Abolitionists threw in their fire-brands, it happened on one occasion, wheal Red Jacket called upon the President, that this subject of slavery was introduced, and the Presi- dent asked Red Jacket what ho thought could be done to getrid of slaves in thiscountry? "Why," said Red Jacket, " you must send all the colored women of the North South, and all the colored men of the South North, and in two or three generations j^ou will ^ct rid of it." [Laughter.] That was a much wiser proposition, and more Statesmanlike, than anything the Abolitionists bring up. How do they propose to get rid of it? Whjr, they say, go on and irritate; the South until you drive them out of the Union. Well, str[)posc you could do it — sujipose you drive them out of the Union — are there any less slaves in the country? Not one. Then you could not abolish slavery in the South, for it would be utterly beyond your reach. But they say, never- tlieless, let us keep up at the North an incessant noise and agitation about slavery. What good will that do ? It only exasperates the South , and doos not help the slaves. Then steal the negroes, ajid send them off on the underground railroad. How soon will you get three millions of slaves ofl'in that way? That will not do. Well, they say, if a fugitive slave comes here to Massachusetts, and they attemjH to send him back under the laws and Constitution, get all the anti-slavery people together, kill the marshal, kill everybody, and then have shootings and hangings, mobs and riots, and a real Jacobin French reign of terror, and all that about one negro ! How nmch has that done to abolish slavery, or to make Kansas a free State ? WHITE SLAVERY ATTEMPTED IN MASSACHUSETTS. Why, look at the wisdom and consistency of these "fiends of freedom," as they call tlieni- K--lvcs, above all others. They went into the Legislature of Massachusetts, without even a minority to ojipose them, and passed a law de- daring, that if the marshal of the United States aliould undertake to return a fugitive slave, imder a law of the Constitution which is just aa constitutional as the Constitution iiself, the whole military power of Massachusetts must be called out to shoot down the officers of the Gov- esaiment while in the discharge of their duty. A Voice "Good." Mr. HALLETT — Yes, good to show your lieels. [Applause.] I will tell you what you will have to nn^et that you call "good," on the fiide of laui; the soldiers of the tjnited States, the armed citizens who mean to stand by the Union against abolition mobs, the whole mili- tajy power of the United Slates called out by the President, if need be, to maintain the laws; ay, and the volunteer militia nf J^Iassachusctcs, who, if called upon by an abolition Governor under that Ircasonable act, will join the side of the Union, SMid help put down all traitors, rebels, and riot- ers! [Loud applause, and faint hissing.] These are the men who talk about resisting the laws of the Union, and when it comes to tlie point are the most arrant cowards in the world. They do not dare to look a brave man in the eye. 1 have Been them, and tested them, and know all about them. Now, I say, they made that treasonable nulli- fication law last winter, with reference to one ^ngle black man; by which act they indicated tlieir willingness to involve this Commonwealth in a war with the United States, to put her out of the Union, to trample upon the compacts of the Constitution, upon every tiling sacred and holy, and violate the oaths they had solemnly taJien, — and all that for one black man. And then, on the very next page of the statute-book, Ujey put another act declaring that any white man who had come into this State should not bo allowed the rights of citizenship unless he had been born in tliis country. And by that act th<>y meant, if in their power, to take away all political rights from at least forty thousand white men in the Commonwealth of ^lassachuselts, while, at the same time, they were ready to go to war with the United States to save, unlawfully, tlw supposed rights of one negro. And forever hero- after, if this tt?ir«-American party rules, runaway negroes are to be received with open arms, and (!Very hunted patriot, fleeing from the tyranny of th(; Old World, to be denied an asylum, and sent back as a pauper! And is that thing to be our INIassachusetts ? Are such the men slie is to select to guide th« helm of State and take care of the prosperity and the honor of the old Commonwealth? What but discord, discredit, disgrace, if not (lisutiion,can come to Massachusetts or tlie North liy this un- availing and incessantly irritatiiiffagsression of the aliolition section of the North u|)oti the South.' Has all the agitation in Congress by a niinoi'ity evergained anything? Could >i)u fuse every voter of the North into an Abolitionist, and gc4 a majority Abolition Congress and President, would yon gain anything then but disunion .' And if you sliould finally bring about what these Know Nothing fusion leaders in the North are using the voters of the North for, a disruption of the Union, what then have you gained but two Republics, one with slavery and one without? And 1 tell you that when two such Eepui)lics are formed, (if ever God leaves us to such judicial blindness.) and the runaway negroes from th« t^outh overspread your territory, then even if the South abandon them, and there is no civil war, you will liave to build lorty alins-hoases for their reception, and support them as paupers, or else send them out of the Commonwealth as a burden too grievous to be borne. And these very men, now the most clamorous for negro freedom, will be tha most earnest to have them sent back ! Let us see, gentle- man liberators, what your philanthropy amounts to. Here are a little rising of three millions of slaves in this country and twenty-five millions of white people. The proportion of these negroes, if freed, for Massachusetts, is about on« hundred and twenty thousand. Is she ready to open her arms and take this unformed mass to her bosom, and sU down with them in social and political frntornily ? Of course they are not to keep them at the South. They would he worthless and unavailing there just as in .Tamaiea. If iha South frees them out of compliment to the North, tlic North must take care of them. The South would not keep tin m, because then the South and West would be filled up by northern and foreisn laborers, who would flee from contact with the degraded free slave labor of the North, and (50 South, and tlius the North would have negro labor, and tlva South the benefit and strength of free white labor, and in- stead of being our market, she would be our competitor, and the North would run down with the worst and most degrading " fusion" of pauper labor. So that if this fusion, anti-slavery scheme could possibly succeed either by civil war or consent of the South, it would just change the Nortli into a worse condition as to labor tl'.an th(! South by giving us all the negro labor — the worst kind of labor, free slavu labor — and all its consequent pauperism. Now the common sense of the North, the self-respect of her working men, will never follow any leaders, nor " fuso" into any formidable party Ibr such purposes or such resuitt as these. Fusion is useless, therefore, except to produce only wois* confusion on the slavery question. NON-INTEKVENTION THE ONLY CONSERVATIVE DOC- TRINE. What are we going to do about it then ? Let these agi- tators follow the advice of Jefierson, whom they aflect to quote. We of the South, said Mr. Jefferson in substance, have got the wolf by the cars, and if we l(,'t him go, he will tear us in pieces. All we can do is to hold on. So if you ask us what the States who have got no slaves shall do about slavery, the answer of the Democratic party is, lei it alone! Let those who have got the wolf hold on, or tame and loose him as they choose, and rlon't let us be tickling his tail to stimulate his rage, and compel his master to hold him tighter. fCheers.] How easy it is to let it alone, and instead of the seclionSj embroilment take care of the great interests of the State and country. What is it to Senator Seward, or any other nortliern man, if South Carolina, as he pretends, has Uej- ftivored dass of slaveholders, any more than it is to South Carolina, that New York and Massachusetts have their favored elapses of bankers, manufacturers, and merchant princes? The Constitution of the United States has no con- cern with it,bf?c'iusfi all these classes or privileges are created by State le<;islation, and the (General Government makes no war on either. Just so if the people of a new Territory or a. new State adapted to slave labor, insist upon bavins it, where do we of the North g('t the rislittolesjislate it out of tt Territory, any more tlian they of the South iiave to legis- late it in .' Your sentiments and mine are opposed to slavery, but is that any reason v.hy we should sji on a eriisade against the South to liberate the slaves, or make a battle-ground of a 8f)utliern territory to keep it out.' No more than it is that we should -lo on a crusade into IJussia to free the serfs in Ihat country; and I confess I am rather more opposed to white slavery than to black slavery, though some people •eem to think there is no sympathy to be felt for a man unless lie be black. Even the Fu.;ioniits 4o not pretend to a right to interfere with Russia in her system of domestic white servitude, and yet wo have less right to intertere with South Carolina than we have with lUissia ; because an American has a right to expatriate himself and go to Russia and join the Poles, or get up a rebellion among the serfs, aad take his chance against the government of the Czar and Uie knout. But here even,- citizen is under a solemn vow and cove- nant, made by our fathers, that ho will not interfere. There fa the Constitution — what say.s that instrument.' "The United States! shall guaranty to every State in this Union 8 republican form of government." That included slavery where the States chose to have it, for the framers of the Constitution found slavery existing as a settled institution In most of the thirteen independent States, and those inde- pendent States said — " We cannot make this Union unless you agree, in this Constitution, not to meddle with this do- mestic institution, and to deliver up our fugitives from ser- vice." It would be just as if thirteen families should come together, in six or seven of which black help were em- Cloyed, and in the others white help; and those who hi;d lack help said to tho.se who had white — You arc not to fnterfere with us in the matter of our help; and they all Bgreed to it and signed a solemn compact to that efiect; but by-and-by, after the families had been going on pros- perously and increased largely, and intermarried, for many years, sonie one family gets up and insists that the families which liav black help siiall give them up, and that no new family in the ncii;hliorhood formed out of the old ones shall be allowed to take the black help from the old families into the new ones ! What an uproar there i-uust be at once ! Now, we have solemnly sworn, i:i that Constitution, that we will not meddle with this question. Therefore, if we BrCt, in this State, with the direct purpose of interfering with the domestic servitude in any State, old or new, we violate the solemn obligations of onr oath to support the C.onsti:u'ion of the I'nited Stales, het us then be honest citizens and keep otir oaths, or go out of the Union if we cannot abide its laws, (^an any man of common sense read this clause in the Constitution and not understand it .' '• No person held to service or labor in one State, under file laws thereof, [and this means northern apprentices just B»! much as southern slaves,] escaping into another, shall, M> consequence of any lavi or rc.%ulation therein, be dis- charged from such service or labor ; but shall he delivered upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." There is the Constitution in just so many plain words ; mid yet these Know Nothings and Abolitionists went into Uie Legislature Last winter, and in the face of their oaths (U)d the Constitution, declared that he should not be " de- livered up." A Voice. « Good !" Mr. IIam.f.tt. That same voice says, " Good !" again. Yes, " Good" to violate an oath ! " Good" to be perjured 1 " Good" to turn traitor to your country ! What good comes from perjury or treason? No, my friends, rather than per- jure yourselves upon this solemn pledge for the life of a Union, rather than go in the face of the Constitution, take the next step, you Fusion men, you Julius Rockwell men, you denationalized Democrats, you Know Nothings, all of you who have gone or arc going into this Fusion party, and say you are going against the aggressions of the slave power. Do not add hypocrisy to treason. Do not pretend that you can constitutionally violate the Constitution, that you can dissolve the Tliiion in the Union ; but take the next step, the bold and hom'st treason doctrine of Garrison and his ichool-.vi/. ; that the Constitution does pledge you to non- intervention with slav<'ry, and therefore you go against the Union as a covenant with death and hell ! Neither can you stop in Kansas or the new States. If you have power there you have power in the old States. That is only your tksl step. The iiext step in that UirecLiou ii> already marked out by the recent convention of radical Abolitionists held in no.ston, who declared that the ne.vt principle for the Fusion party to adopt was, that the Constitution di— eveiy side i.ssue that has been got up from that day to ihia — has been a combination to break down the Democradc power that has wisely ruled this country ; and national Democracy, v/hich has triumphed only by tlie union of northern and so\ithern Democrats, they call the slave pow-er, in order to cry •' mad dog," and run it down ! That is it, brother Democrats ! Oh ! how I wish yoo could remember that! JIowI wish every Democrat through- out this broad land would stand on that rock when tlieee agitators and denouncers make their empty dcrlanntiona about the aggressions of the South upon the North ! Why, I ask you, if Democratic influences had not controlled this country, what would it have been ? A little margin of thirteen Atlantic States, and that is all. That is what tl» Federal party undertook to make these Stales in order to keep the political power. The Federal party had itj strength at the North, and so has all the opposition ft) Democratic administrations from Jefferson to Pieroe. Why did the old Federal party of the North assail tire South ? Because the South had Thomas Jefferson, and sustained him with the aid of the Democrats of the North! That was why they assailed tlie South. Thomas Jefi'ersT)ii took the lead'as the great head of the Demoeralic partv. John Adams was then the head of the Federal party of tlia North. The southern Democracy and the nortliern Do- mocracy rallied around Jeflerson ; and even in Massachu- ■ setts, in 1804, the Democracy gave the vote of this State to Thomas Jelferson against John Adams, and they were 'called for so doing the "Wn7c slaves of Virf^ini'i !" It , was by that union of the North with tlie South that tte I Democratic principles of this Government were established. ! [There is a stand-point upon which every Democrat and I every Union man should place himself to overlook thii qiu\stiou of pretended aggressions of the slave power uprm the North, .\dinirably, cogently, has this topic been pre- sented with elaborate research, in an article by the llosttm i Post, published in that paper of November 1, (and Slateu- ■ man, Noveml)er 2.) headed " The Democratic Farty caid \ the Jllle^cd Slave Power.''] \ UNION OF NOnxHERN AND SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS.. ! And how has it been since 1801 ? In fourteen presidential 1 elections, eleven have been carried solely by the union of I tlie northern and southern Democracy; and whenever the I Federal pa.-ty, or the National Republican party, or th» I Whig party,' or the hard cider party, have stolen int» i power, (three times only in all that period,) how have the^ I done it? Uy ant i slavery lecturers, and political parsons,, and renegade Demoemis, tiaveling over the North, and , telling the Democrats that the slave power was enslaving them, and picking their pockets, and they nuist go against ■ the slave power! And thus, once or twice in our history, enough diduded Democrats have been carried over to tlie ' Federalists, the Whigs, and the Abolitionists, to put down j the Democratic power of the North and South combined ; together. That is what these Fusion and Know Noibin" j conspirators arc after now ; the old game ot divide aud conquer. j Thus \ye find Mr. William 11. Seward, of New York, be- ginning bis campaign against the Constitution by crying I out about the " oligarchy of the South." By that cry ol " mad dog " lie means the Democracy of the South, which, whuu it unites with the Democracy ol the North, has al- ways boon invincible and always carries this country. It is the oligarch vol" the Democratic people, North and South, Which, iMr. Seward knows, ifunited, will he too strong' for his "Fusion oligarchy," which he wants to make liim Prt;sidfnt, that he may crush out the Democracy of the i^utli, and tlien easily conquer the Democracy of the Noj-th. THE TRIUMPUS OF THE UNITED DEMOCRACY, NORTH AND SOUTH. Fellow Democrats, he not deceived. Who put down the tyranny of the alien and sedition laws? Who purchased Louisiana and Florida? Who secured the iiaviifi.tiou of tbe niii'lity Mississippi? Who fought for free trade and Kiilors' rights? Who carried the country ihrougli the sec- ond war of independence in ISlii? Who prostrated tiie paper-money power, tlie United titatcs Banii? Who gave you a sound currency, an Independent Treasury, the great balance wheel of trade and connncree ? Who put an end Uy tlie nullilicatiou of lbi!3, and linally established a just tariil' that all now acquiesce in? Who annexed Texas? Who put down the Wiluiot proviso? Wlio carried the country tlirough the Mexican war with glory, and gave to the coninierco'and trade of the North the golden Califor- uia? And finally, who has expanded this country from ftwrteon States, and brought into the Union seventeen itcw States with all the rights of the old States, with or without slavery as the people ofeacii State chose to have it: Who has done all this for your country ? The Democratic parly, the Democrats of the Northand Houthmiited togetlier! tLoiid applause.] That is what these narrow-uunded see- tipnal men of the North, these bigots and Know Nothings, sUguiatize as '• the slave power." Now i will sit down with any one of the Free-Soilers or Know Nothings, or Fusion men, and beginning at 1801, 1 Will trace every measure of liberal and enlarged state^mau- sliip, every great act of tliis Government for the good of the \Shole Union, everytlih'.g that has expanded its territory, arci'ything that has enlarged and demoerati/.ed its influence, feiythiiig that has elevated its giory abroad, everytlhng at has insured its tranquillity at home, and one by one 1 will show you that they have been aceoniplished by the (Iiiitcd votes of tlie northern and southern Democracy. Whenever a Democratic measure has failed, whenever Biddle carried his charter for a bank, whenever tlie Sub- I'teasury was cheeked, whenever a high tarilf has been imposed, it has been owimg to a division of northern Deni- crerats from those of the South, and allowuig the Federal Whig party to come in and Uilie the power. That is tlie way It has been done; and taking all the history of the past and looking to the future, you may rest assured, that wheri- es'er these men, wi til their insidious sneers about the '-ilave power," can bring about a separation and alienation be- tv^eeu the northern and soatheni Democracy, they will open the v>"iy to an entire change or dissolutiod knows who! Ves! who are these leaders of Know Nothings, .^bolitionists, Fusionists, and all the paltry isms of the day ^lat make Massachusetts a political liedlain? We never saw these men (except a i'ew wo always knew to be soft aad uncirtahi) in the Democratic ranks, ligiiting for us in tpiy of these great battles of principles. When they pre- ttinded to staiid on a Democratic platform, we always lound Qiem upon some plank that had a side issue to it, and niiudiiig so narrow on that as only to get on tlie edge of it! [Applause.] Let us not take counsel of these narrow- Ciiiidcd nK'ii. Let us look all over the countiy, and then We shall see where our largest and truest interests lie. Above all things let the northern and southern Deinocracy sUiiii together in this coming crisis of the Union, as tliey have sljod together, and Uiuiiiphed together, tor half a ceii- tuj-y of glory ! TJiE *' NEBRASKA INICIUITT " — THE " KANSAS CCT- RAGE." Well, some of you'tell me that may do as to past ineas- Vfcs, but how can we of the North submit to this horrible ut.— at the ballot-box, I hoi)!— but even if at the point of the bowie knife, what is the (iovernment of these United States, what arc the other States of the Union gohig to do about it, in Congress or out of it? Are tliey going to take sides and hriiig on a civil and a servile war between the North and South? They say the President should have sent an army therw. What pover has he there ? If he had moved a single stop, with a single company of dragoons, the country would have been in an uproar, and the cry would have re- sounded on every hand, "Military Usurper 1" "Ty- rant !" '• Violator of the Constitution !" He has no such power. What would have been the elfecthad lie attempted such a power? If it be a fact that they are divided between emigrants from tlie North, and emigrants or interlopena from the South in Kansas, how are you going to settle it by the whole Union interfering? If the President sendona body of troops there to aid the norlhern portion, Missouri will send another body to help the southern portion. If you rally at the North to sustain the troops the President has sent, they will volunteer at the South on the other side ; and wlien you have got an army there of fifty thou- sand men, on either side, then they may fight, if tliere is courage in these Fusion men at the North to go South and fight. "Courage!" no, folly. The North does not lack courage ; it has got courage enough ; but 1 do not think il has got fools enough to go to Kansas to fight on such a que.'ition as this, [.\pplause.] What have you got to do, then ? Why, let it alone ! ll T\ill take care of itself. Leave the question of slavery or no slavery in Kansas just where our fathers left that qoos- lion,ta God and the pcojjle ! [.'\.pplaUL:e.] THE PRlNCirLE OF THE KANSAS BILL. — POPULAJS. RIGHTS. Now, what is the principle of that Kansas bill? Why have the Democratic party come to that doctrine ? Will you consider the argument a moment? No, no, clamor the Fusionists and Know Nothings, you have violated a solemn compact ! Well, is it worth while for these men to talk about the violation of a compact in a mere legisla- tive enactment, v.lien they trample upon the soleimi com- pacts of the Constitution ? They are not the men to re;»d us lessons on that head. Hut here comes the argument, the reason why Democrats abide by the Kansas bill, ajid will make that an issue on which tliey will carry the next President. Ever since the Missouri compromise of 16-20^ Congress has been kept in turmoil and agitation on thia subject of slavery. It got to be so great a nuisance in breeding demagogues, that tiie people could not have any wholesome legislation. Private and public interests weie alike thrown aside, because this angry subjcctof slavery was being brought up at all times. Now, so long as Congress undertook to exercise the power to prohibit or authorizw slavery in the Territories, that sore of agitation was kepi open, and the men who got to Congress upon this deniiv- gogism kept irritating and irritating it, until it would ha\"9 destroyed the Union, had not some stop to the plajue baen found. What did the statesmen of the country do? The/ said, " Let us look at this matter. It belongs to the States, and the people in the States must take care of it. Tha same principle is equally sound when applied to the people of a Territory. Instead of saying whetlicr slavery shall or shall not exist in the Territories, v\e will organize the Ter- ritories and let the peojile there settle it for themselves. Tliey vvill know best what is for their interest." That is the principle of the Kansas bill. There is not a man here, probably, who has ever read the Kansas bill. The Free-Soil lecturers do not read it to the people. It bi one of the most Di:mocratic things in the world. It pro- vides that every actual resident siiall be a voter at the fitst election, and then the Legislature shall fix the qualilicn- tions ; That those only shall be niembors of the first I>e- gislature who are " duly declared by the Governor to hava the highest number of /c^r-J votes." So that the Kansas Legislature, bad as it may be, was certified by Governor Reeder to have received the highest nu.mber of legal votes. Then, wten it came to act and pass laws, it had Uie sacM rights to make laws uniler the Constitution its the Lcjisla- Inre of MasEacliusctts had, and it can haidly liave pajisod more lawless acts than that Legislature did 1 The powers of legislation established by the Kaasaa and Nebraska acta are in tliesc words: "The Icsiskitive power shall extend to all riiihtful snh- |octs of le^islLiiion consistent with the Conslitution of the Unitry or State, nor to exclude it tlierofroni, hut to leave the 2>e}plc //teres/' perfectly free to form and ri.'ynlate tlieir (loinestic institutions In their own way, subject only to the CJonstitution of the United Suites." Is not that sound Democratic doctrine .' Is anybody op- posed to tliat.' '• Hut there is a sect of ' border rufiiaiis,' " Uiey say, " wlio invade that Territory from the other side ot' the river, and control the elections."' 'J'hatis all wrong, sad will re.act a»ainsl the wrong-doers ; bwt if there is wrong done, wo caiinot cure it by civil war. 'J'he voters, by the Kan.ia.s act, at the first election, were to be ''actual resi- douts." What is "an actual rc-jident" in Kansas'! Are wp to settle it in other States, or niu.-;t they settle it there for themselves.' A mangoes into Kansas and swears to- d.ty, " I am an actual resident." They cannot dispute him, for it rests in his own mhid and purpose, and they take his vote; an.l in that way all tlicse men that go ihore from Missouri, if not residents, must have taken I'alse oaths, and perjured tlienisclves. But, you say, behind that is the p Kansas to legislate for them or regulate them, if they liare abused their powers .' WHO SHALL MAKE THE LOCAL LAWS OF A TERIUTORY.' And this brings u; to the simple question, shall Congress make local laws for a Territory, or shall the people oi' the Territory make tlieir own local laws? Democrats say yes. Fusionists say no, the people of the 1'erritories skall not have the right of self-government, and the new States s/ja/I twrf have the same rights when they come into the Union that Massachusetts haa. There we take i.ssue upon this plain, open, practicable, Jeliersonian doctrine, that the psopl,-; of every |).olitical community shall have the riglit " to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their •wn way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." Tliat is the Kansas bill ; and now I may ask, are 3^u in favor of freedom, or are you in favor of slavery for rMte men in Kan.sas? If you say that they are not to be trusted, b:;cause you fear they will carry .slaves from other Stiitos into Kansas, then you deny self-government of the people, and go for while slavery in Kansa.s, under the self- canceit.^d pretense that you can govern for iliem better than Uioy can govern for tlmmsclves. THE CONSCIENCE ISSUE APPLIED TO KANSAS. But yon insist that your conscience will not allow you to LlBR<^'^'^ OF COHGRE^v ;oing on in thts eat many things t can't help, anJ - ^^- It has bsun so I.. ^ ftA3 ^ ilitieal tiimioiL Tin A 89' ...; niaydesiro th.at Kan- s ft V>T. »■ ..,. «ii on a crusade against the South under these Abolition atui Know Nothing missionaries, and drive slavery out of Kan- sas or drive the South out of the Union ? What avails it now to talk of repealing the N(!braslBi bill ? There it is a law of this Union, and the Deinocratili party of the Union are ready to meet it as an issue, be- cause it is the only conservative doctrine conciuntjig slavery as an incident in our State governments, upon which the whole country, South and North, can repose ia peace. Hereafter, when we settle this one princi|)le, (.is we sh.'ill in the next presidential election,) by applying ft to Territories the same as to States, we can go forward peacefully in the great mission of covering this continent all over with independent States bound together in this glorious Union. The people of no Territory or ni.'w Stala will have slavery unless tl'.ey permanently desire it as a fixed clement in their domestic institutions. Should it at first be forced upon a Territory by " border ruffians" or In- terlopers, the reaction of the will of the permanent settler* will be the more efficient in the end in excluding it. Thitj^ if the real and permanent people of Kansas shall resolv* upon having a free State, including blacks, Kansas will 1m free, without slaves, within her territory. But if her peoplsi, deliberately looking at their own affairs, resolve that slM shall be a free State with slaves in it, (for that is the obIt difference between free and slave States in this Union,) I do not know what right we of the North have to interfena. All we can say to her is, we think you liave the worst of it ; you have got to hold the wolf by the ears, and we will not tickle hi.s tail to enrage lihn, or to rend the UuiDB, [Apijlause.] SLAVE REPRESIINTATION. As to the argument touching slave representation, re much the worse for Kansas. Jf she, like the South, ha» slave labor, it excludes justso much free labor, and so v-eob- e;!.s her political power, as it doi's In all the slavelioldfiKf States; for the slaves, who exclude free laborers from th« population, count in the ratioofre[i',osenlatiiin(notin ro