BUREAU CO. REPUBLICAN--EXTRA Remarks of Mr. Lovejoy on Receiving the Nomination at the Convention Held at Joliet, June 30th Mr. Chairman and Delegates: I do not rise for the purpose of general discussion. But I should do injustice to my own feelings if I did not express my obligations to you and to those you represent, in having placed my name, in the flattering manner in which you have done it, before the Third Congressional District for reelection. To say that I was not highly gratified at this result would be mere affectation. Gentlemen, I am gratified and thankful in view of this endorsement of my course in the councils of the Nation, and this highest testimony of the continued confidence of my constituents-- thankful beyond the power of expression. I never was much in the habit of parading my feelings before the public. When moved deeply, whether by emotions of joy or sorrow, I am prone to silence. But I cannot help saying my heart, as well as my lips, thanks you for this token of approval and confidence. When the electric flash and the pen informed me, while still at Washington, that the result of this Convention was as certain as any thing future could be, it did not excite a feeling of triumph, but after the first gush of gratitude had passed away, there succeeded a sense of obligation to those who had so generously and triumphantly sustained me, and I felt that I would sooner lay down my life than betray such a constituency, or do any thing unworthy of them. Gentlemen, if I have uttered one heart-prayer to my God, it was for his aid, wisely to discharge the duties of my position, and faithfully to meet the trusts committed to my care. That I have performed these duties imperfectly, and with inexperience, no one can be so well aware as myself.--that I have performed them honestly, I am concious before my God; and as long as you confide the standard of our common cause to my hands I hope to bear it aloft in the thickest of this moral conflict, firmly without obstinacy, fearlessly but not rashly. As to the words in which the formulas of our faith shall be expressed, it is to me a matter of little consequence.-- I believe that the love of freedom and the hatred of oppression undergirds and vitalizes the whole republican movement. The principles of our fathers in regard to human liberty and equality still live in the hearts of their descendants, and will find appropriate expression and suitable exponents. I am content with the Philadelphia platform. I toook my place there in '56, and there am content to stand till some future convocation of the Sons of Freedom, clothed with rightful power shall construct a new one. At the same time there is a common religious expression that has significance. "No cross, no "crown." Said a sagacious and far-seeing statesman, "give me the name that my enemy fastens upon me, and I have a scimeter with which I can mow a path through the ranks of my foes." -- The terms Christian, Puritan, Methodist, were words of reproach, and the principles they represented never triumphed till those who loved them traced the term of reproach on their banners and bore them on to victory. The term democrat was once an opprobrious epithet, as indeed in its decadence it promises to be again. The derisive Yankee Doodle is now a National tune. For myself, I hate slavery with a deathless and earnest hatred, and would like to see it exterminated, as some time by some means it must be. But because I thus feel towards slavery, it does not follow that I shall seek its extermination in unjustifiable modes. It does not follow that because I am opposed to monarchy that therefore I should be in favor of fitting out a naval armament to dethrone Queen Victoria. I am content to fight slavery in modes pointed out in the Constitution, and in those modes only. I do not think, however, that we need to be very apologetic when we tread on the corns of slavery. The defenders of slavery doo not act thus. They strike between the horns with a will. I like to do the same thing when I can. But if we cannot speed the ball to the brain and cause instant death, let us aim behind the shoulder where the heart throbbs, and if we may not do that, let us seize a club and give it a blow on its spinal column, so at least as to cripple it. It was on this principle that the Republicans acted last einter in Congress. They voted in the first place to reject the Lecompton Constitution as utterly vile and fraudulent, and consequently unworthy of even being considered. This is the record of what we would have done had we been in the majority. But because we could not kill it outright, were we therefore not to kill it at all? I thought not, and [column break] we were all of one mind on this subject, and so not being able to slay it, we broke its back and left the rest to the people of Kansas. But does our action in this exceptional case bind us to a principle? Not at all. If I ride an ox out of a slough, am I therefore bound never to ride a horse? Do I thereby say that I prefer to ride oxen rather than horses? Not at all. I simply say that I prefer to ride an ox rather than stay in a mud hole. And so I do. We are engaged in a deadly hand to hand fight with the Administration and with the slave propagandism which controls the Administration. We confront each other, and while engaged in this death-struggle, if any one else choses to fire into the flank of our enemy, I do not think it worth while to turn our guns upon them, but true to our principles and our men, march right onward through the ranks of the foe. As to antecedents the less we say the better. The sooner we forget what we have been, and only remember that we are Republicans now, the better. The original and varient elements of our party had to be melted in the crucible of our common cause. I am not in the habit of alluding to my antecedents, not because I am ashamed of them, but because I am proud of them. When I am accosted therefore as I have often been, "why, you have changed, you are not as radical and rabid as you used to be," my uniform reply has been, "it is no matter who has changed, so that we are all right and all together now." But if any are determined to push this heraldic investigatioon to see whose political escutcheon has a bar sinister upon it, I shall not only not decline but welcome the search. But still, I repeat it as my earnest and deep conviction, that the sooner we forget that we were old liners in any direction and remember only that we are Republicans now, the better. I am told that fears are expressed about the southern part of the District and the southern part of the State.--fears that Lovejoy will frighten away Kentuckians. Now I submit that was tried on in '56 till it was worn out. The southern part of my district has given me a more cordial and unanimous support than the northern, for the reason, probably, that I am better known here than there.-- But I can tell you that Lovejoy has no trouble with the Kentuckians, it is the renegade Yankees that support slavery that bother him. I have had many a cordial pressure of the hand and kindly gleam ofof the eye from those same Kentuckians. After hearing me advocate my principles, and God knows I never concealed them, they have often said to me: "I am just as much as an abolitionist as you are." I do not care to make any allusion to the campaign of 1856 which might have the appearance of boasting, but I must be permitted to say that any one who talks about Lovejoy's loading down the ticket must himself be ignorant of the history of that period or, presume on the ignorance of others. It is asked if I am for Lincoln? my reply is that the Republican Party was not organized for the benefit of any man--it was not made for Lincoln or Lovejoy, or any one else, but it was organized for the purpose of giving political efficiency to those principles of freedom with which, in theory, our government is instinct, but which have of late in its administration been crucified. I am no hero worshipper. And now I am prepared to say that I am for Lincoln, not because he is an old time whig--to me this is is no objection and it is no recommendation-- but I am for him because he is a true hearted man, and that, come what will, unterrified by power, unseduced by ambition, he will remain true to the great principles upon which the Republican party is organized. I am for him for the same reasons that you and those you represent, are for me.-- Why have the people oof this District risen in their majesty, and poured out to the primary meetings in multitudes through streams and mud, and honored me with this unanimous nomination by acclamation? Was this because they wanted to honor me as an individual? Not that, but because they thought I had been true to those principles which they cherish and love as above all price and above all individuality. For this reason I am for Lincoln, and whoever is in Abraham's bosom cannot, I think, be far from the Senate. And here I wish to express my satisfaction with the resolution approving the course of my colleagues. I can cordially and very sincerely bear my testimony to the constancy, fidelity and ability with which they discharged the duties of their positions. I trust it may not be ammiss for me to express the hope that they will be returned. Friends, brethren, yes, I will say brethren, let us be true to our principles and God will crown our efforts with success. Owen Lovejoy Princeton Jul 14 1858 Ill. FREE O Lovejoy Mr Hon Abram Lincoln Springfield 41752 Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.