Speech Of Hon Reverdy Johnson On The Questions Conected With The Condition Of The Country

Author : Reverdy Johnson
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330399576
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

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Download or read book Speech of the Hon. written by Reverdy Johnson and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Speech of the Hon.: Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, Delivered Before the Political Friends of Hon. Stephen a Douglas, at a Meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston June 7, 1860 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of Massachusetts: The sensibility with which I feel this cordial reception, I want words to express. All that I can do is to say, that I most sincerely thank you, and that I shall ever gratefully remember it. The place too where it is given, imparts to it, if that were possible, an additional value. Faneuil Hall! What thoughts rush to the memory, at its very name? How lost the soul, that can within its sacred precincts, fail to be inspired by the impulse of a pure patriotism, and an undying love of his whole country? What names rise in their majesty before us? What times and issues and struggles? The very ground we stand upon is holy. Here, was Freedom's temple. Here did the voices ring, that called a nation to arms, and echoing and re-echoing through the entire extent of our land, made their way across the deep, carrying glad tidings to the oppressed of the world, and dismay and alarm, to the oppressors. Then, no degrading sectional prejudices threatened disaster. Then, no thought was entertained of interfering with our respective social institutions. Each and all were patriotic. They knew but one country, that which included all the States. They knew but one freedom, that which was comprehensive of our whole land. They fought and bled for it, and achieved it not for one but for all, and believed, as I trust in heaven the result will prove that they justly believed, that by all and for ever it would be enjoyed under one Union against which to plot would be esteemed the world over the foulest treason ever harbored in human bosom. I trust that I shall bear in mind the hallowing influences of this Hall, in all I am about to submit to you. If I was capable of wishing to forget them, I feel that I could not in such a place as this. Could I be so lost any where, to patriotic duty, as to wish to arouse sectional animosity to "endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views," I should be awed into silence, - dumb from very shame, in this place sacred to liberty and to Union. Not forgetting, therefore, where I am, but guided, I hope, by the spirit of the place, I proceed to discuss the topics which more especially belong to the occasion that has convened the meeting. A Presidential contest is at hand. It involves matters of high import. From a conviction most honestly entertained, and adopted after, as I think a full and fair review of the whole ground, I came to the conclusion (the old Whig party being practically at an end, because of the practical termination of most of the measures of public policy, which gave it its national character,) that in the existing condition of the country, that character belonged only to the Democratic party and could by that party only, be maintained. In this organization every State of the Union was included. It recognized no territorial limits. The equality of the States was one of its fundamental principles. It denounced all assaults on their respective domestic institutions - it conceded that of slavery to be a legal one, not only because of State laws, but because of its recognition by the constitution of the United States. It admitted the obligation of every State to pay implicit obedience to the clauses of that instrument containing such recognition, as implicit, as to any other of its provisions. This institution has become the sole cause of peril. It was disturbing the fraternity of feeling which our fathers entertained, and threatened to involve us in social, if not revolutionary hostility. - Slavery had so long existed in the Southern States, dating its origin to a period prior to the revolution, and was, and is, so intimately connected with all their pursuits and habits, that they have nothing that they value more highl...