Indiana State Guard, Volume 1, Number 31, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 September 1860 — Page 1

V THE OILJD)

IAN

H id THE CONSTITUTION, THE UNION, AND THE EQUALITY OF THE, STATES!

VOL I

THE OLD LINE GUARD. f IS rUBI.ISHKl) AT I N DIANAI'OLIS UVDlAiA, II V ELBKU & MAUKNESS. X 33 n JVC SI Vl.OO, uiitilHtier llic Presidential Election. In advance, in all cases. Advertisements inserted at the usual rates. s r i: k c n Of 'the'. HON, ISAAC I, STEPHENS, At Frederick, Maryland, September 8. , Mr. President, and Fellow Citizens of Frederick and of the State of Maryland: This is a new epoch : tuX i,;0tr.i.v rr nur pmintrv. For the first time we have a stump candidate for the Presidency. Ap plause. A gentleman or maomuauiu eneiH, u glowing eloquence, and of iron will, has already addressed his fellow citizens in Twelve of the sovereign States of this Union, preferring his own claims to the highest office on earth. Not content with giving the reasons for his faith that he was pre-eminently lilted for that position, he has gone aside from his path, and with no sparing hand has dealt out maledictions and anithemu; and against whom? rirst, against our Democratic Administration, the work of ouj hands; yes, against the patriotic and venerable James Buchanan, who has given to his country nearly half a century of faithful public service; against the members of his Cabinet first and foremost of whom is Lewis Cass, who fleshed his maiden sword before bur stump candidate was born. Applause. Lewis Cass, who crossed on foot your AUeghanies sixty years ago your pioneer in the Northwest, who led the very advance of civilization through that vast domain, makin" our country known to the aboriginal tribes, known" to our neighbors north of our boundary, and causing it to be respected by both. I will not go over the roll of names ; they are men honored, not simply in the councils of the nation, but honored in the coun cils of their respective States. These men are pro claimed secessionists, disunionists aje, anu i.auuis, and more than this. Cast your eyes over our political firmament, and you find certain Democratic States, with organized Democratic, Governments each and all of these, save the State of Pennsylvania, is pro.Inlmpd in helnncr to the secession and disunion party. Go to your Senate chamber, and there, on the roll ot j names, many of them historical, acting together as Democrats, you find our stump candidate proclaiming all his fellows, save one, the friends of secession and disunion ; and if you go to the House of Representatives the case is nearly the same, and in about the same proportion. It is, indeed, a most extraordinary exigency of affairs that a gentleman proclaiming himself the regular nomineo of the Democratic party, should, in twelve of the sovereign States of this Union, thus denounce his feilows in these harsh terms ! I shall hereafter return briefly to a particular expression used in connection with these remarks in the progress j of my speech ; but I desire to bring to the touchstone of truth these allegations against the statesmen of the land. I shall speak not in terms of bitterness of any person or of any party ; but I ask of each and every person present," as he loves his country, as lie would advance its honor and renown, as he would impress a pure and noble public service through every department of Government I ask each man present to consider, so far as the passions and interests of the hour will permit him to do so to impartially consider this record ; and. if these harsh terms are to be bandied and to be cast, to determine Upon whose shoulders they must stick like the shirt of Nessus. Let those who live in glass houses find no fault if stones are thrown ! Let those who deal in harsh and abusive and denunciatory epithets find no fault if those epithets are cast back and made to enter the crevices of their false aimor, even to the flesh ! ' -. The great distracting question, fellow citizens, which has agitated our national councils, which came near imbruing large portions, and did imbrue small portions, ofour country in blood, is one of the questions now before the American people ; I mean the slavery question. It has not been withdrawn from the halls of Congress, although it was believed in 1854 that a bill had been enacted which would cause it to be withdrawn forever. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was generally supported or acquiesced in by the Democratic party as a final settlement of this vexed and troublesome question. There were at that time differences of judgment in the Democratic party as to the rights of the"people of a Territory in reference to the question of slavery. Many gentlemen Southern gentlemen generallv and a considerable proportion of Northern Democrats took the ground that a Territory could not decide the nuestion of slavery until it came to frame its State Constitution preparatory to admis-j sion into the Union as a sovereign State. This difference of judgment met our party at the threshold, and was discussed on the occasion of the introduction; and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. There "j was a neutral ground found, upon which all men could j stand. It was agreed to be a judicial ques:ion. It! was solemnly declared by all persons of the Democratic partywhatever we're their differences of judg-i ment as to the powers of a Territorial Legislature, that it should be determined by the courts; and hence,1 in the declaration as to the rights of the people of a Territory, the expression " subject to the Constitution of the United States "was introduced as a basis of settlement. We have evidence that such was the case. AVe have the evidence, first, of the veteran Cass. I will read it. Said General Cass and, fellow citizens, let me pause for a moment; this is dry work. I know, but I have come here to make no an-; peal to passion or to prejudice; I have come here with the record in my hand; and 1 ask you all, as 1 ask myself, to examine' that record fairly, and to stand on that record firmly. Gen. Cass said, in 185G : "I have heard this subject mentioned repeatedly, but I never took any notice of it before. It is said there is a difference of construction between the North and the South on the Kansas-Nebraska act. Necessarily it must be so ; and if the honorable gentleman from Illinois Mr. Trumbull could not see that, he was not able to see vety far into this millstone. Those who believe that slavery goes to the Territories under the Constitution, propria rigore, of course believe that no power is given to the Legislature to prohibit slavc- ' ry." " I migl t quote our candidate for the Presidency to the same effect; for Mr. Breckinridge declared. " the effect, therefore, of the repeal," referring to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska act, "is neither to establish nor exclude, but to leave the future condition of the Territories dependent wholly upon the action of the inhabitants, subject only to sudi limitations as the Federal Constitution may impose. But to guard fully agaiust honest misconstruction, and even against malicious perversions, the language of the bill is perfectly explicit on this point. " 11 will be observed tlut the right of the people, to re nilate in their own way all their domestic institutions is left whollv untouched, except that whatever is done roust be done in accordance with the Constituent! the supreme law for us all. And the right of property under the Constitution, as well as legislative action, are properly left for the decision of the Federal Judiciary. This avoids a contested issue which it is hardly in the competency of Congress to decide, and refers it to the proper tribunal." Aud, said our stump candidate the same year, 1 856 : Mv answer then was, and now is, that if the Con

IfVIHANAPOLIS,

stitution carries slavery there," that is, to the Terri-j tones, " let it go, and no power on earth can take it i away." '; j At the Cincinnati Convention the principles of the i Kansas-Nebraska act were incorporated into our plat-, form of principles, and our. party went before thoj. country and successfully carried the election. We j find tliat during that contest, all through the South j the ground was uniformly taken that, under the Cin- J cinuati platfgjafi the people of a Territory could not j settle the question of slavery until ihey came to frame j a State Constitution preparatory to admission into the j Federal Union. That was the .ground taken by every j member of the Democratic party in the Southern i States. Why, fellow citizens, here is the Democratic j electoral ticket of Virginia in the year 185C ; you can recognize even in the remote portions of this room; the portraits of " Buck and Breck ;" and let me read ; the motto; " Our Principles the Constitution, the Sovereignty and Equality of the States; the Repeal of : the Missouri Restriction; the People of the Territories,!, in forming State Governments, to adopt their own Insti-1 tuiions." Cheers. That, fellow citizens, was in j 185G. This was the State ticket of Virginia, a border ; slave State, a fortiori establishing the fact that at least j this was insisted upon further South. From the de-j nunciations and anathemas of the candidate who has stumped twelve States, and has twenty-one States yet j to stump, we appeal to the record oi '185(1, standing out in unmistakable lines which all men can read, to j vindicate our motto, " The Constitution and the Equality of the States these are symbols of 'everlasting i Union. Let these be the rallying cries of the people." j Great applause. i How, in 185G, was the Cincinnati platform under- j stood at the North ? Fellow-citizens, Benjamin F. j llalletf, of Massachusetts, was the author of that Cincinnati platform. But, forsooth, he is now a traitor, asecessionist, a disunionist, because, in the honestyof ; his heart, he has given to it to-tjay the interpretation he put upon it in 1800, taking the ground that the j Cincinnati platform, and the platform of 18G0 of our j own party are perfectly compatible the latter simply ; being the true interpretation, on a point disputed, of! the former. We well kuow that, all through the j North, in 1S5G, were large numbers of our party whose construction of the Cincinnati platform agreed thoroughly and entirely with the construction of the citizens of Maryland and of Virginia, and the citizens ; of other Southern States. ; Why, fellow-citizens, . 1 was myself on the stump in the Territories the next year. In 1857 I was a candidate for Delegate to i Congress in the Territory of Washington a Terri-: fory-. your most distant Territory your most North- j crn Territory. AVe had just got the Died Scott deei- j sion out there; we had not got the official report;; but in that canvass we stood upon that decision firmly, inflexibly, defiantly ; and the people of that distant; and Northern Territory sent me to the House of Hep- i rcsentatives by a majority of two to one. Cheers. j That was my judgment as an humble follower in the! Democratic party ; and the people ot your most distant possession, a most proud and independent con- j stituency, as tenacious of their rights as you are of; you re, not only sustained me then, but sent me back j last year by an increased majority. Renewed ap- j plause. I Referring to this matter, I had my own kind friends i at Charleston, who came to me and asked me, " Do j vou think your people will sustain you 1 " I replied j that I did not know, I had not asked them, but I j should probably find out in three or four months ; and there the subject dronned. But I say to you, fellowcitizens, that that distant and patriotic people, in their county conventions, have endorsed and ratified this platform of secession and disunion, as it is called this platform of traitors ! What have we in Washington or Oregon to influence us ? AVe are far removed from your troubles and your strife here. AA'e are attached to this Union. Ah ! never did a son, when wandering in distant lands, more mourn for the mother of his life than our people do for the States and the friends they have loft at home. Applause. They are looking to those friends to join them; they are looking to union and to harmany ; but now they are separated from you by mountain ranges and vast, unsettled wildernesses removed from your strifes, havin"' nothing to govern them but love, patriotism, and devotion to the Union. Yet we are called disunionists and traitors, and secessionists ! AA'ell, the election of 1856 was accomplished. Mr. Buchanan, in his Inaugural, intimated that there might be a decision of this vexed question by the Supreme Court. It was decided, as I have before stated. That decision was acquiesced in by all Democrats that I could hear of on the western coast. We supposed and doubted not it would be acquiesced in by all Democrats here. It has been acquiesced in by the secessionists and the disunionists! Laughter They obey the laws; they revere the judgments of the courts; they declare that the decisions of these courts shall be enforced. AA'hy, fellow-citizens, by whom was the Dred Scott decision made? It was by the Supreme Court of the United States. Does any man dare to impeach the integrity of those judges, their independence, their patriotism, their devotion to the Union? AA'hat did that august and patriotic statesman of your own, Chief Justice Taney applause what did he have to swerve him from the path of rectitude ? He has filled the highest honors of the State to which he had aspired." lie had been baptized in that great political period in our history by the valiant chief, Andrew Jackson, (renewed applause, and he has come down to us with the venerable Buchanan for our President and the venerable Iewis Cass the three chosen counsellors of our hero President, and the last of their race. They have come down to us the one to expound, and'the other two to administer the laws. Ah, fellow-citizens, if you have reverence for that epoch of j our political history, if you revere age and service, it I you have respect lor gray hairs, brand as a traitor to j his country tnc man wno uares inus to i-uueaiur iu brinir those crav hairs into the dust! j Time rolled on, and our friend, the squatter giant I laughter went to Illinois, and entered into his contest with Lincoln for a seat in the Senate of the I United States. He was received with an ovation at! i Chicago Chicago, heretofore the scene of his mighty j j triumphs in the Democratic cause. Once be was hung in efligy, fighting for the right; and that was I j the crowning glory of his life. AVhy, oh Heavens! ; i did he not allow himself to be hung in effigy on every j ! lamp-post of every city and town in Illinois in con- j ' tendinfor the right? AA'hy did he not, with his giant! powers, his matchless eloquence, his extraordinary j 1 endurance why did he not stand upon the courts and ' Constitution of his country, and defy all assailants' j and all assaults.? Ah! had he done to, we would not i have had this controversy now. The American peopie would have taken him to their hearts, and in their j strong arms would have upborne him and placed him ! in the Presidential chair; but he wandered after false i rods. He wandered towards the abolition camp; and at Freeport he first in plain language enunciated this damnable heresy, the doctrine of unfriendly legislation. Let me read from his Freeport speech. In that speech Mr. Douglas said: " If matters not what way the Supreme Court may I hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution ; the people have the lawful means to iii- ' tioduce or exclude it, as they please, for the reason ! that slavery cannot exist a day or afa hour anywhere I unless it is supported by lx-al police regulation, j Those police regulations can only be established by the j local legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, tlicv will elect representatives to that body who -,r i . n.. I....;..,;,.,, ..ir..-i.,Jll,- . ,.v..',,i t,a Will, UV UUU1:U1 ivisinuiniii."-..; j,. v , ..... introduction of it into their midst. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may 1 on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill." That is, fellow-citizens. Congress ha no power to' exclude slavery from the Territories, but its agent, iu creature, mop by unfriendly legislation, no matter what the decision of (lie fcupreme Curt may be; or in other

IND THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27,: 1860.

words, "down with the decision of the Supreme Court ' away with the decision of the Supreme Court! The people, notwithstanding that decision, have the lawful right to exclude slavery from the Territories!" That,, I say, was a damnable heresy, unworthy of a statesman who held allegiance .to the. J lemocratic party; and how has our friend presented the case during the present canvass? He has made a number of allusions to this matter. At Bunker Hill he declared " That principle was, I repeat, the right, the inherent, inalienable right of the people the people of colonies, of Territories, of provinces, as well as of States to make their own laws, establish their own government, and manage their own affairs.. There he stands upon what he is pleased to call the inalienable right of the people of a Territory to frame their own laws, despite of other obligationseven their obligations to the Constitution of the United States. And again, he declared at Springfield, referring to the citizens of the Territories: "AA'e hold, therefore, that the citizen does not derive power from Congress, for ho has already derived it from God Almighty." Thus wo find Mr. Douglas resting his dogma of squatter sovereignty, during the present canvass, first -upon the inalienable right f thejnople of a Territory to do just what they please, despite of the rights of the citizens of the several States, who through their government own the entire domain ; and, second, we find that he derives his grant of power, not from the Constitution, not from the laws, but from Almighty Cod! AVell, that is Mr. Seward's higher law; that is the doctrine of the " irrepressible conflict !' Now, m order to prove that this is a damnable heresy, that it is false doctrine, I have to summon an august and conclusive witness; and that is none other than Mr. Douglas himself. Laughter. In the discussion on the admission of Iowa and Florida into the Union, Mr. Douglas, iu the House of Representatives, used this language: " The father may bind the son during his minority, but the moment that he the son Strains his majority his fetters are severed, and he is free !o regulate his own conduct. So, sir, with the Territories ; they are subject to the jurisdiction and control of Congress during infancy, their minority; but when they attain their majority,' 'and obtain admission into the Union, they are free' from all restraints and restrictions, except such as the Constitution of the United States imposes upon each and all the Slates." Again, in 185G, Mr. Douglas said: The sovereignty of the Territory remains in abeyance, suspended in the United States in trust for the people until they shall be admitted into the Union as a State." Recollect, fellow-citizens, this was two years after the Kansas-Nebraska act passed: " In the meantime they are admitted to enjoy and exercise all the rights and privileges of self-government, in subordination to the Constitution of the United States, and iu obedience to the organic law passed by Congress in pursuance of that instrument." AVhy, fellow-citizens, even since this memorable declaration was made by Stephen A. Douglas, he has suggested, in the case of Utah, not a repeal of the acts oAhe Territorial Legislature, but the doing away with the legislature itself; for you will all remember that he suggested the idea in public speeches in Illinois that the difficulties in Utah could not be reached except by a repeal of the organic act, and by annexing Utah as a judicial district to sonte -'neighboring Territory or State. This testimony is conclusive as against himself. It is good testimony to present to his followers. I do it in no spirit of censoriousness or bitterness, but with a view of presenting the record. AA'eJI, fellow-citizens, this declaration of Mr. Douglas in 1856, is exceedingly, sound doctrine. He was then one of the great lights of the Democratic party; he was its chosen chief. His body was scarred in fighting the battles of the Democracy, and his words had sunk deep into the Democratic heart ah ! especially these significant words ; and when he wandered, his followers did not wander with him. They adhered to the faith ; they stood by the decision of the courts; they had confidence in the Democratic Administration; they had faith in the Democratic Senate; they also had "faith in brother Democrats in Democratic States; and they still have faith in the indestructible principles of -Democracy. Enthusiast:c cheering. And you find them to-day standing up before the people of these United State's, confident in the justice of their cause, and determined to wage glorious aud valiant battle in the advancement of the victory of those principles. Renewed applause. I am not here, fellow-citizens, to attempt the vain and fruitless task of vindicating the principles of our platform or of vindicating the patriotism and devotion to the Union of citizens whose eveiy act and whose every thought has proved that devotion and that patriotism. AYlnylel-Icw-citizens, our platform, the platform of the National Democracy, is almost in the exact words of the decision of that tribunal to which all Democrats, in 1856 and 1854, referred the questions in dispute. One of the provisions is almost in the identical words at least in the identical spirit of the words of Mr. Douglas himself, in 1856, which I have already quoted. Our principles are, that the government of a Territory is provisional aud temporary; that it is the creature of Congress; that the people of the South, equally with the people of the North, have the right to go to the common Territories with their property; and that when the Territory comes to frame its State Constitution, then, and not till then, has the time arrived when it may settle the question of slavery. An additional resolution declares that it is the duty of the Federal Government to protect the lights of persons and property in the Territories, and wherever else its constitutional authority extends. I cannot see, with Air.. Douglas as our august witness at thr time with the veterau leadere of the Democracy, Buchanan, Cass, Breckinridge, Stephens, and other distinguished gentlemen of the North and the South, all determined to a"rce to and abide by the decision of the Court I cannot see Low any Democrat can reconcile himself to oppose our platform. I cannot see how Democrats, standing upon our platform, can still support a candidate who declares such a platform a disunion and secession platform. Yet it is even so. AVe find that, in Missouri, all Democrats those who support Mr. Douglas as well as those who support Mi Breckinridge stand upon the Missouri platform, which is simplya different expression of the platform of our party; for it was the platform of the first majority report, but not couched in as good language. 1 myself was upon the Committee on Resolutions, and know that the difference between the two was not in principle, but the one adopted was dressed in better language than the Missouri platfoiin. Now, fellow-citizens, is not the Government of a Territory simply provisional and temporary? Have not the people of the several States lights there which it is the duty of Congress to protect ? Does not the Government have devolved upon it the duty of managing it3 proierty in those Territories, viz:' the public lands ? It has to survey them ; it has to offer them for sale ; it has to provide, through its donation and pre-emption laws; homes for our people on equitable terms. The General Government is the guardian of the Indian tribes, and it must see to it that tbuse tribes are proerly protected, as well against the indiscriminate aud thoughtless action of its own people, as against each other. AVe have in the Territories, frequently, commercial interests, as in Oregon and AYahington, where you have your duties ' to collect, your timber to preserve, and where, even in tlieir Territorial existence, you have your navyyards to establish, and your fortifications to build ; and there is the '-home of the homeless," as has been said bv many, in every State of this Union ; in other words, there are lands where the adventurous and enterprising ieople of every State of the Union have the right to go and earve out a home for themselves. It is the duly of the General Government, during the existence of theTerritorv. to sre to it. that bv no thoughtless act

of the first settlers, are the rights of the citizens of every State in this Union touched or impaired. Again, under our platform, the-people of the South have the right to go to the Territories with their slave propertv. They have the right there to hold their slaves as property! No unfriendly act of the Territorial Legislature can" touch or impair such right; they have the j Supreme Court and the other courts of the land to interpose and see that the rights of all our citizens are respected. Our platform declares, in unmistakeable t language, that these rights shall bo protected by the j several branches of the Federal Government, each iu its appropriate sphere. Applause. You are told,: fellow-citizens, that the people of the North ask no protection for their property ; you are told this by Mr. Douglas. And lie likens the relation of master and slave to that of husband and wife. Let us look at that a moment. Can a Territorial Legislature inter-

vene between a husband and his wife separate them ; against their consent, expel one or both from their ( common home, or change the condition of one or both . in the married state ? On the other hand, is not the-; Legislature bound to respect that relation? If an act of crime is committed, incompatible with the relation , of husband and wife, then the Legislature may intervene and provide the proper remedy ; or, it the 1ms-. band maltreats his wife, then, through her nearest friend, she may apjieal to the courts and hold him to the penalty ot tlie law. -.o mucn tor tiie relation oi : husband and wife. How is it with the. master and his slave? Can Hie Legislature interfere with that relation except, first, to protect the master in his orooerty. (slaves beintr property,) and second, to pro tect the' person of the slave against injustice, (the slave also being a person ?) Such is the legislation of every , Southern State. It regards the slave as property, ami holds him to his master; it regards the slave as a per-; son, and it protects him against injury. There is a lair and proper statement ot what a j errnonai legislature could do. It could protect the person of t he slave, as every Southern State protects it against in jury. ltis DouiKl to protect the ownersmp oi me mas ter in his property, as every ."Miutnern niaie uoes . ami therefore the argument of the relation of husband and wife siniply strengthens the position of our platform in regard to the relation of master and slave. I may ask, in this connection, what is government-' instituted for V What is the object ofall government ? AVe behold governments of various forms despotisms, ' monarchies, republics, democracies; but all for what object? You see that all have navies, and armies, and revenues, and officers, and capital., and public buildings, and courts of justice. Is that the object of government? Do people come together in vast na-; tionalities simply to get up navies and aimies, and great works of art, and raise immense, sums of money merelv to disseminate it again through the whole country ? ' Ah no, fellow-citizens ; you all know that such are simply the instruments of government. Govern-., ment is instituted for the sole purpose of protecting ; persons and property nothing else ; and in our Ter- ( ritoiies, those of us who have passed through Indian wars, who have lived in a Territory when all the peo- i pie were living in block-houses, 'anil when it was a r question, whether we could save our wives and our children from mrtssaere, know what it is to have the ; protecting hand of our Government. I have lived in ; a Territory in this condition; I was the executive of a Territory in this condition, when I complained, and ; our people complained, that we did not have the strong i arm ot the General Uovemment, as we were entiueu r to have it, to protect our persons and our property. ; Tell it not to the people of the Territories, that they I do not expect some protection fi om the General Goveminent in their persons and their property ! It will j do very well in your quiet and luxurious cities ; it will j do very well here, in your thickly-settled States, where you do not know anything of the diiheulties of the wilderness and the savage, as we know in those distant Territories; but my word for it, when you get Kan-sas-shriekers, and Garrison and AATendell Phillips operators, and thousands of New Enirland clergymen out of the way, the people of every Territory will hold fast by your platform as tliey wouiu Dy ine auar oi the tabernacle ! f Annlause.l Now, fellow-citizens, whatever may be said of us, ; we are the Union party; we are the Democratic party; j we are the anti-secession parly, doing gionous pairio. for the Constitution and the equality of the States. Enthusiastic applause. I have shown you that our platfoim is a logical consequence, not simply of the Kansas-Nebraska act and the decision of the Supreme Court, but of the dogmas and statements of Douglas in 1856; and it is a most extraordinary spectacle, (but we have often seen it in the history of the world,) that when struggling manfully and with our whole heart for the Union, we should'be denounced by wanderers from the faith as disunionists. Look at the glorious record of our candidates. Can you pick a Haw in the words or deeds of either Breckinridge or Lane? Why,fellow-citizens,the name of Breckinridge is fraught with revolutionary memories and with signal services to the State; and he seems to have been the glorious product of the times miming back Uirough mnnv venerations.. AVe find him seltibnecating ; for he declined peremptorily to allow his name to go be- j fore the American people as a eaniinuue ior me in si , office in their gift. AVe find that his whole life has ; been characterized by firmness, by steadiness, by in- j dustry, by great self-possession, by heroirm. He was raised in "Kentucky, that land and home of the brave, that "dark and bioody ground," which in the war of j 1812 showed how insiinct the people were with the: spirit of self-sacrifice and valor. His whole life has been a seimou ; every word almost has been a song. so harmonious, so onward, so satisfactory have been j its measures. If you look to his public speeches, if j you look to his reputation among his neighbors, if you; look to the acts of his public life, yon find a pure, an! upright, a careful, a conservative' and at (he same; time a steady and bold statesman. In Congress he was the' champion of a just economy; he was the; champion of 'equal rights, fighting in Congress as lie j. fought in his own home in Kentucky against the doc-i trines of bigotry and intolerance, advocated by tiiej Know-Nothing jmrty. Cheers. There has been no departure on his part from the; faith of the fathers; there has been no inconsistency,, but lie is to-dav the growth of Ameeican statesman-: ship, which should inspire all lovers of their country ' with hope, and which will give admonition to the na-; tions of the earth that our course as a nation is onward and upward. Fellow-citizens, Mr. Breckinridge and Gen. Lane have gone into this contest with but oiie pledge a pledge of fealty to the Union and to the Constitution as interpreted' by your platform. They have no pledges to individuals. No man has dared to approach ; our candidates chaffering for terms rwith jierhaps, it may be, a single exception! Laughter. They eonv sider that these offices are held intiust; and if ele-; vated to the high office of President, Mr. Breekin-1 ridge is free to earn- out the wishes of the American people and his own'judgment of right, and is bound to no individual. Shall I sjieak of Gen. Lane " old Joe," " honest Joe," as his friends, who arc the Amer-: ican people, delight to call him? Fellow-citizens, Gen. Lane has been reproached with being an illiterate man ; they say he don't cross his r. right, he don't don his Ps riiiht. he sometimes puts in two (' when he should have put in but one, and so on. That is all the blemish our op(onents can fiud in the spotless reptita-: tion of Joe Lane. Now, I never thought much aliotit 1 crossing t's or dotting i' myself: and when I have found men of sense who who were so excessively particidar about that sort of thing. I have assumed that they were the best judges of their own capacities, and I alwavs bid them God speed! Laughter and cheers. 5 Gen. Lane, as every man knows who knows him personally, is a man who commands respect and i confidence. He is honest; and let me tell you, integ-, rity of character is what the people of the country ; want, and is what we ought to demand of our public ' men. General Lane posse- that lofty, chivalrous, ' self-sacrificing integrity of character, and he has a ' clear and almost intuitive perception of the character of others. If shaky men undertake to get round him, '. they will deceive no one but themselves: but thf Gen

NO, 31

eral is a courteous gentleman, and does not say unpleasant things unless he is compelled to. But he can say ami do hard things, however. I might call as a witness to that fact, Santa Anna, whose home he beat up on a number of occasions. I might refer to his battles In Mexico, his brilliant victories, his decisive 'marches, and when he held in the hollow of his hand nearly one-half of Central Mexico. Cheers. There was a lion-hearted hero doing his duty; but I dare say he never got into a fluster. He was always selfpossesed, but the aet and the blow followed the word. And, fellow-citizens, I am a citizen of that North-west coast. I know General Lane, not simply as a public man, but as a cherished friend, a disinterested adviser. I know, too, how his memory is cherished on that distant coast. He crossed the mountains in winter; he reached Oregon in March ; he organized a government, aud he, as the leader of that people, protected them from the hostile assaults of the Indian tribes. Twice he led their columns in war, and on his person has the marks of service received there, as well as those received at Buena Vista. Applause. And this is the kind, quiet, gentle old man, very good for a friend, but not fit for public position I Now I tell you, I like to have just such men " not fit for public position," in public position. They do not talk much; they do not brag much; they do not have confidential friends hero and there and everywhere, iu order to fill up the newspapers with telegraphic dispatches and glowing descriptions, so that, everybody may say, '' AVhat a great man he is ! " No, this quiet way, this thoughtful' way, is what does the thing the act arri blow following the word. Gen. Lane understands that, and if, in the Providence of God, he should ever be our President. We insure in the Vice Presidential candidate a man the compeer of our Breckinridge ; and we thus present to our country two men who will bring back to us the heroic age of General Jackson. Great applause. And now, fellow-citizens. 1 desire to touch briefly upon another topic. I have referred to our President: and mv words do not come from an office-holder. I did hold olliee under the last Administration. That I had the confidence of President Pierce appears from the tact that from the army he promoted me, and gave me the position of Governor of the Territory of AVashington. I had the confidence of President Pierce; and I must say that nothing is more grateful to my heart than the' confidence and good will of good' and true men. Applause. And it is a great gratification; it is like pouring oil over every wound. AVhen you feel this, calumny and contumely are innocuous. AVell, Mr. Buchanan did not sec fit to re-appoint me; and I thought he was a most sensible man. Laughter. That was my honest judgment. 1 had that sense of it that I refused to permit my friends to present my name to the President for re-appointment, preferring' to come to AVashington as their delegate. In my canvass in 1857, when I met Republicans and they brought up Kansas against the President, saying that all her Governors had turned Republicans, I said to them: "Thank God! you know one Governor who has not turned Republican, but who comes before you a friend of the Administration, and a standard-bearer of the Democracy of the Territory." So much for personal matters." J came here in 1857, and, in the course of public service, for the first time I formed the acquaintance of our President. After as careful a survey of his acts as I was able to make, I not only conceived great, confidence in him but a strong personal attachment. I felt that, he was one of the revered statesmen of a foimcr generation, endeavoring with undiminished faculties to administer the -affairs of the State: and I have felt grieved when calumny has raised its hideous head and has thrown its poisoned darts against his good name. Applause. AVhere stands our stump candidate on this record? This fact ought to be held up to the American people, as I shall do to-night. I refer to the Concord speech of Mr. Douglas, in which he says : "The President told me if I did not obey him, and vote to force the Lerompton constitution upon the people against their will, he would take oil' the head of every friend I had in office." This is a conversation which after a silence of three years, in the heat of a Presidential canvass, Mr. Douglas affirms was held between him and tho President of the United States. I desire to call the attention of rcntlemen present to a letter from the President to i-i , , . i:-. 1-.. l P..-.0: bx-uovernor oinun oi vnuiuia, m-n-iu ; dent says: ' - ' v "Surely there must have been some mistake in Unreport of the speech, because I never held any such conversation with Judge Douglas, nor any conversation affording the least color or pretext for such a statement. It was not in my nature to address such threatenintr and insulting language to any gentleman. Besides, I "have not removed one in ten of his friends, and not one of his relatives. Even among those of his friends who have rendered themselves prominently hostile to the measures of the Administration, a majority still remain in office. I might add that I have 'never held a political conversation with Judge Douglas on this or on any other subject since the day my first annual message, of the 8th of December, 1857, was read in the Senate: aud I (lid not transmit the Kansas Constitution to Congress until the 2d of Felv ruarv. 1 858, the question of slavery not having been decided bv a vote of the people until the 21st of December, 18.57." 1 shall not go info any discussion of the question. I simply hold up this picture, and I hold up that, with this question: Is it likely that if the President had such a conversation with Judge Douglas as the latter alleges he would have kept it hugged to his bosom for three years and never have given it to the public until he got to Concord, N. II.? AVould not a man of keen sensibilities have resented it as an insult upon the spot; and would not Judge Douglas have used it in the Senate when he charged the Administration with waging bitter and irrevocable war against him? I do say that Mr. Buchanan has committed one grave error in his Administration. It is an error that men of lofty integrity and high qualities are apt to commit the error of exceeding disinterestedness and self-abnegation. It is a fact that at the North a majority of the office-holdei-s are and have been howling wolves after this Administration, abusing it in terms of obloquy, and taking advantage of the equanimity of a high-spirited patriot ! But this is an error which his friends may pardon the President for: it is an error which history, if it notes, will note with great leniency, and perhaps with much commendation. But the "administration of Mr. Buchanan, in spite of all the attacks made ujion it by this perambulating and peripatetic candidate, laughter, will stand out in iiistorv a noble monument of the onward progress ot our country. He has reduced expenses, not increased them, as has been fafcely stated within the past two da vs. He has endeavored to impress all kinds of reform' on the Administration. It was not the wolves with tongue. licking buttered chops that howled against him, but it was the wolves whose bellies stuck to their backs, and who were famishing for food. 'That was the true history, and we challenge contradiction we defv enquiry. Come on, and we will show by irrefutable testimony that such is the cae ! Why should we be alarmed? General Jackson was not alarmed, that sfc-rn old hero, wbeu they talked about dragging him from (he White House with their ten thousand men fiom New York, and other great cities. He replied to all their abuse, " Hard words break no bones." Laughter. It is so in this contest. But we have heard some talk about a gallows and Haman. Let us pause a little. 1 am not touching upon dangerous ground, and I have a thought to say. Fellow-citizens, then- is tiuth in the remark that our great fiuinv is the Republican party. It is a fanatical lartv. It is a arty which U covertly endeavoring to attack the institution of slavery in the States. Pause a moment while I recite a few well-known fact in its Iiistorv. Time was when we had nothing but national pa rti'.-, except a small handful of men in the Northern State, led on by certain fanatical leadershonest men. eamet men, disinterested men, determined men, who, against contumely and reproach, and discouragement of even kind, held to their pnn-