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THE UTTERANCES OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS. 359.
Was not Sumner, afterwards, one of the most popular champions of the
republican party? Mr. Seward, only three months before the election,
harangued an audience in Boston, and speaking of Mr. Lincoln's election to
the presidency, he said :
" His claim to that seat is, that he confesses the obligation of that higher
law, which the sage of Quincy proclaimed, and that he avowed himself, for.
weal or woe, for life or death, a soldier on the side of freedom, in the irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery. This, gentlemen, is my simple
confession. I desire now, only to say to you that you have arrived at the last
stage of this conflict before you reach the triumph which is to inaugurate this
great policy into the Government of the United States."
Did the republican party deny that Mr. Seward was one of its most
honored representatives, and did not Mr. Lincoln, upon assuming the presidential chair, reward his utterances,by making him his Secretary of State, the
highest office in his gift ? The New York Tribune, all through the summer,
was filled with the most offensive libels on the people of the South, and
scattered incendiary diatribes broadcast through the country. It urged that
two million copies of Lovejoy's speech should be printed for distribution
during the presidential canvass. Did the republican party ever intimate that
the Tribune was not its trusted organ ? Mr. Lincoln, in one of his replies to
Mr. Douglas, said: " I believe this government cannot endure, permanently,
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do
not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It
will all become one thing or all the other."
Did not Mr. Lincoln stand higher than all other men in the esteem and
confidence of the republican party ? But we abstain from multiplying
extracts, though we could furnish them by the page, to prove that the South
had ample cause for alarm in the elevation of Mr. Lincoln and his supporters
to power.
We think, therefore, that it cannot be denied that thus the two great
sections had become estranged from, even hostile towards each other, prior to
the nomination of Mr. Lincoln; but so long as the Federal Government
should stand between them, and have the disposition and the power to enforce
in every quarter obedience to the constitution, the South dreaded no systematic and irresistable assault upon its rights. When, however, the republican
party met in convention at Chicago, it presented an issue to the country
which changed altogether the aspect of affairs. It assumed an attitude
which few conservative men then believed it would dare to take, and which
could not fail to excite the gravest apprehensions in the South. Under the
shallow pretence of reaffirming the Declaration of Independence, it asserted
that governments are instituted to secure to all men the inalienable rights " of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It adopted the language of the
charter of the republic, but it gave to it a signification widely different from
that which it bore when it was first written. The Chicago Convention meant
| Title | History of Maryland - 3 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000390 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | THE UTTERANCES OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS. 359. Was not Sumner, afterwards, one of the most popular champions of the republican party? Mr. Seward, only three months before the election, harangued an audience in Boston, and speaking of Mr. Lincoln's election to the presidency, he said : " His claim to that seat is, that he confesses the obligation of that higher law, which the sage of Quincy proclaimed, and that he avowed himself, for. weal or woe, for life or death, a soldier on the side of freedom, in the irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery. This, gentlemen, is my simple confession. I desire now, only to say to you that you have arrived at the last stage of this conflict before you reach the triumph which is to inaugurate this great policy into the Government of the United States." Did the republican party deny that Mr. Seward was one of its most honored representatives, and did not Mr. Lincoln, upon assuming the presidential chair, reward his utterances,by making him his Secretary of State, the highest office in his gift ? The New York Tribune, all through the summer, was filled with the most offensive libels on the people of the South, and scattered incendiary diatribes broadcast through the country. It urged that two million copies of Lovejoy's speech should be printed for distribution during the presidential canvass. Did the republican party ever intimate that the Tribune was not its trusted organ ? Mr. Lincoln, in one of his replies to Mr. Douglas, said: " I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will all become one thing or all the other." Did not Mr. Lincoln stand higher than all other men in the esteem and confidence of the republican party ? But we abstain from multiplying extracts, though we could furnish them by the page, to prove that the South had ample cause for alarm in the elevation of Mr. Lincoln and his supporters to power. We think, therefore, that it cannot be denied that thus the two great sections had become estranged from, even hostile towards each other, prior to the nomination of Mr. Lincoln; but so long as the Federal Government should stand between them, and have the disposition and the power to enforce in every quarter obedience to the constitution, the South dreaded no systematic and irresistable assault upon its rights. When, however, the republican party met in convention at Chicago, it presented an issue to the country which changed altogether the aspect of affairs. It assumed an attitude which few conservative men then believed it would dare to take, and which could not fail to excite the gravest apprehensions in the South. Under the shallow pretence of reaffirming the Declaration of Independence, it asserted that governments are instituted to secure to all men the inalienable rights " of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It adopted the language of the charter of the republic, but it gave to it a signification widely different from that which it bore when it was first written. The Chicago Convention meant |
