Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
of northern and southern interest, no declamation, no violence, no love
of money, no party zeal, no fraud and no lies, no compromise, can long
put off the time. Bad passions will ere long league with the holiest
love of right, and that wickedness may be put down with the strong hand
which might easily be ended at little cost and without any violence,
even of speech. One day the democratic party of the North will remember
the grievances which they have suffered from the South, and, if they
embrace the idea of freedom, no constitutional scruple will long hold
them from destroying the "peculiar institution." What slavery is in the
middle of the nineteenth century is quite plain; what it will be at the
beginning of the twentieth it is not difficult to foresee. The slave
power has gained a great victory: one more such will cost its life.
South Carolina did not forget her usual craft in voting for a northern
man that was devoted to slavery.
* * * * *
Let us now speak briefly of the conduct of the election. It has been
attended, at least in New England, with more intellectual action than
any election that I remember, and with less violence, denunciation, and
vulgar appeals to low passions and sordid interest. Massachusetts has
shown herself worthy of her best days; the free soil vote may be looked
on with pride, by men who conscientiously cast their ballot the other
way. Men of ability and integrity have been active on both sides, and
able speeches have been made, while the vulgarity that marked the
"Harrison campaign" has not been repeated.
In this contest the democratic party made a good confession, and "owned
up" to the full extent of their conduct. They stated the question at
issue, fairly, clearly, and entirely; the point could not be mistaken.
The Baltimore Convention dealt honestly in declaring the political
opinions of the party; the opinions of their candidate on the great
party questions, and the subject of slavery, were made known with
exemplary clearness and fidelity. The party did not fight in the dark;
they had no dislike to holding slaves, and they pretended none. In all
parts of the land they went before the people with the same doctrines
and the same arguments; everywhere they "repudiated" the Wilmot Proviso.
This gave them an advantage over a party with a different policy. They
had a platform of doctrines; they knew what it was; the party stood on
the platform; the candidate stood on it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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