Elizabeth Cody Stanton Speeches & Writings File Speech: "The Future of the Republic", Boston, [1851-65 [ Pages 33,35 missing ] [Partial draft of Untitled speech on reverse of last 20 pages] Manuscript of speech The Future of the Republic by Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered in Boston in time of the Civil War. Speech delivered in Boston towards the end of the Civil War. 1. The future of the Republic In this day of our adversity all hearts turn anxiously to the future of the republic. + With one half our country the scene of a bloody and devastating war + with a divided North + with but few educated into the idea of a true republic, + + with the nations of Europe eagerly watching our struggle and plotting our downfall, + in the upheaving of our civil, political, and social institutions we may well with seriousness weigh the final result. + When a sudden shock of adversity overwhelms a family; their future depends not on anything external; but on the recuperative energies, the virtues, they in themselves possess, on the forces [?]y are individually able to put [?]th.— If in family counsel 2. all are made to feel the difficulties of the position, and each one Father, Mother, children agree to do their utmost, to retrieve their fallen fortunes, and set to work with hope and courage, a future to them of peace and prosperity is as sure as the rising of the sun, and just as sure is the future greatness of this nation, if its sons and daughters under a new reading of the Bible and the Constitution our political Father and Mother combine to day the foundations of the state in justice and of the church in mercy, remembering that "righteousness exalteth a nation" What European powers may think or say, or do, is nothing. The dangers that beset us n every side are nothing. The history of other nations, the downfall of all the old republics is nothing. If 3. we have no parralell in the past. No material forces or outside powers, no [ ] crowned heads or copperheads can drag down a nation planted in the rock of equality, that eternal principle buried in the soul of man - that eighteen hundred years of oppression has served but to deepen and intensify its power. But the greatest [ ] to effort is a full knowledge of the difficulties of the position, to this end let us run over as briefly as possible the probable condition of things all the close of the war, assuming that in spite of spades of gawker guns, [ ] and the countermarching of the army of the Potomac it will end, and that slavery must end with it. Behold the South overrun by two armies of devastation, her lands exhausted 4. by slave labour, made desolate by war. Her Harbours, Forts, Lighthouses, railroads, bridges all demolished, vast tracts of wood land cities, towns, farm houses, fences all burnt to ashes. Capitols, churches, colleges, schools all dismantled, abandoned and turned into barracks and hospitals. Merchants, banks, railroad insurance and gas companies all insolvent. Its agriculture, foreign commerce, internal trade, and industrial permits all forced from their natural channels and nearly destroyed. Every available resource of the South will be drained to the dregs, leaving behind a vast national debt never to be paid by the South because if cannot, and never by the North because it will not. And the conquered people what will be their condition. Jeff Davis and his congress Army, if not in exile. 5. Their brave men and youth, the seed of the nation, buried beneath the soil. Their disbanded army the saddest wreck of war, manhood made desolate by suffering and disappointment, soldiers made dissolute and reckless by a life of chance and hardship, such a population suddenly turned loose in a community can but bring danger and distress in its train. The old men, the decrepit women and children driven from their homes, wandering in wretchedness and want, without mercy or justice laws or country, and the whole black population set free by war and violence ignorant of their civil, political, and social status. Such is the condition in which this unprecedented civil war will leave the slaveholding states. In the words of Lord Brigham "such is war the greatest curse of .6. the human race. the greatest crime because it involves every other crime in its execrable name all with the wretched, & thank God I may never say the utterly frustrated, as it always was the utterly vain, attempt to crush the liberties of the people." — And all this desolation is ours not because we are the worst people in the world but the bravest & the best. — because of the persisting & valour of the rebels , & the stern determination & ability of the north to crush them, to subjugate them & if need be exterminate them & in them the principle of caste & class in this republic. But the south ; will not suffer alone. — Though the battle ground may never be in our rich valleys or on our free hills, yet an army of a million & an half of brave men in .7. their prine drawn form out friends - whose vacant places shall not all be filled again, will bring to us also sorrow & desolation. Who can number all those killed in battle, that die in hospitals the maimed,t he blind, the halt, the dissolute, the vagabonds the wreck of war that shall come back on northern freemen for support & protection. Our jails, prisons, our asylums, our hospitals will all be crowded to overflowing. a disbanded army does not readily return to the sober industrial pursuits of life. The excitement of a soldiers life unfits a man for the dull routine of self-support, the quiet of home & civic life. What thrift, cunning, virtue, angelic patienc & holy life the mothers of this republic will need to meet the sort of events of the .8. This protracted war will draw heavily upon the resources of the North too. We shall suffer in our industry, trade, & commerce, all business must necessarily be driven into a feverish & uncertain condition. The bad debt we are creating soon to equal that of Great Britain will load us with taxes for centuries to come bearing most oppressively as they will on the working classes strikes & mobs & riots will be a part of our discipline in the readjustment of the new government". The sad effect of years of war & violence will tell on the morals of the nation at large. For while the few from this baptism of blood shall rise into a holier love of justice & humanity on the many shall fall the withering influences that must ever follow in the train of war. The best & noblest feelings of our nature must all be held 9 in abeyance before man can be served up to mortal combat. But having once roused revenge, & tasted blood, it is not easy to hush the will again to sleep. The marks the stains, the wounds inflicted on the body politic in this struggle will not be healed for a century to come. [*x*] "Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for another." But the true soldier like the true saint dies daily. His life is a constant offering to his country -- he is ready at every hour of day & night to meet death in any shape in any form — and when the quick summons comes, and he vanishes from our sight amid the thunder & smoke of battle — it is only a promise 10. In our future action remember the long train of evils in store for us are the natural, the legitimate results of slavery. God hath so linked the race together man to man that whatever injustice is done to one reacts in all. The chain that hold the black boy in the everglades of Florida, & the slave girl in the [quarter] of New Orleans was fastened round the neck of New Englands sons & daughters & though for a long century we heeded not their prayers & groans we now reap with them the whirlwind & spend ourselves in tears of blood Yes such are the results of slavery, the seed left in the Republic when its foundations were laid germinated & a baleful tree sprung up in mighty proportions, spreading its tenacious roots broad & deep & throwing its gloomy shadow & poisonous fruits all over the land 11 Think you this Opus could be prostrated, plucked up root & branch without rending & tearing the whole surface of the country The storm with its thunder & lightning & convulsions that now appals us, in whose blackness of darkness we cower & turn pale is but the requiem of slavery, the death knell of class and caste ringing from Lake to Gulf from sea to sea In the midst of such a condition of things sadly surveying what to many seems the wreck of our national fortunes at the lowest ebb tide of our affairs shall any one dare to pronounce republicanism a failure. The old world & our Tories prophesied at the beginning it must be & ever watching our experiment, the least grating in the wheels of government proved to them what they predicted true. .12. Though Europe has ever pronounced our Declaration an absurd bugary. Yet it has always been to their crammed heads like [some] a painful dream that shadows forth some living reality. Sooner or later to be realized by all the nations of the earth "All men created equal," think with what amazement monarchs emperors tyrants & despots heard that echoing round the world! All men created equal! Who then say they shall tremble at our word! - worship us on bended knee! - Burn incense to our lust of power, Oh! what are [?] & gold & lace & palace [?] to power. E'en Shylock valued not his ducats as his power to take or withhold a life! Yes. The principle of equality uttered by our Fathers in a sublime moment of inspiration few were .13. ready to hear or live. No wonder that Europe had so little faith in our success & that we ourselves lost sight of our true mission among the nations of the earth. - "Republicanism a failure, the experiment has never yet been fully tried, for no [?] was Liberty crowned with the wreath of orange blossoms to wed this western continent than slavery claimed her as his bride & the [?] features of what are stamped in living characters on all her progeny. Republicanism a failure! If we have failed what nation has succeeded? - What one can boast a century of peace & prosperity such as we have known? Which nation is our superior, in commerce, manufacturies, general education, & the comfort & independence of the labouring dupes? Do not our .14. sails white every [?] & our inventions heighten labour & quicken speed the world over? Republicanism a failure when as the first [insult?] to our flag 500,000 volunteers all assail & equipped stand forth, & with a simultaneous [?] cried out - "all men are created equal" "down with the foe who echoes not this [?]" No! No! We have not failed yet though beset with dangers & [?] [?] in with difficulties though wounded & bleeding we have in us still the elements of success, the [?] power to life, the [nation's?] [?] above the clouds of discord, dis- -appointment, & death. No! No! Though half dead, we still have life enough to make the British Lion [?] [?] the air as he treads his little [?] .15. with full knowledge then of the difficulties of our position, & our power too, self-poised let us calmly meet the momentous issues that are close at hand, & by our greatness in adversity prove ourselves worthy to walk in the dazzling glory of that future that shall yet be ours. "In war [?] for peace" Now is the time to make our just demands - the policy our rulers shall pursue less as the rebels cry out "[?] enough" Now is the time to settle the [?] of reconstruction. - to put the right thought in motion. - "to educate the people for the hour of action. Let our Lawyers Doctors Merchants, Farmers, Mechanics & even the women & negroes inform themselves thoroughly 16 on all questions of national life & our rulers at Washington will reap the benefit of the nation's information. -- Remember it is the people & not the President that governs the nation. If you fear military despotism educate your people with a full knowledge of all their civil & political rights. If perplexed with doubt & uncertainty as to the future of this nation show the people that reconstruction on the basis of freedom is the only way to life & peace & immortality. Let us consider then the work of reconstruction under three heads. Political. Industrial. Social. 1. Political. How shall the govern- -ment treat the insurgent states? Shall they after whelming the country in blood & ruin in their mad struggle for independence 17. empire, be allowed to resume their original status, without conditions? Never! to permit this would violate all the laws of retributive justice & be offering a premium on future revolts. Those who have acted in this rebellion should be made to feel that they have fought their battle & have lost. On their own theory the revolted states are not out of the union. By repealing the ordinances by which they became members of the union as states (assuming the repeal to be valid) they did not become independent states, outside the union, but were remitted to their original condition of territories within the union & thus became subject to Federal authority. 18. like other territories. On their own theory then they are territories of the union in a condition of insurrection to Federal authority & they have no right to complain if they are treated as such. This being true when the revolt in these territories is subdued they may be admitted to the union as states on such conditions as the states that have not revolted may see fit to impose, these conditions being such as are authorized by the Constitution & are just. But waiving this theory & the inferences that inevitably flow from it shall not these insurgent states when the rebellion is crushed be treated as conquered provinces, subject to be held & dis- -posed of by the conquerors according to the rules of war? Shall we 19. consent that South Carolina & Georgia shall a second time dictate the terms of which they will come into the union? The present war is not carried on as a mere attempt to subdue a portion of our citizens, but precisely as if it were a war between indepen- dent nations. The powers of Europe so regard it & we ourselves treat the revolted states in an hundred ways not as domestic rebels but foreign enemies. Our line of policy carried out to the end will inevitably compel us to treat the Confederate states, when our arms are victorious, precisely as we would Canada & Nova Scotia if we had conquered them in a war with England & to treat them precisely as we have treated California & New .20. Mexico. which we conquered from Mexico, that is admit some of them to the Union as states, on such conditions as we deem just & hold the others as territories as long as we deem proper. 2. In reconstruction, which will be our work in the preservation of southern industry. As already shown at the end of the war the resurgent states in their material industrial & financial aspects will be a desolation such as the world has never seen. In this view the duty & interest of the loyal states will persist in one direction, - The tide of of [sic] adventure enterprize [inf___] [m__] & emigration, which has hitherto [?] with the great states of the North West 21 dedicated to Freedom by the ordinances of 1787 -- must be urged and encouraged in a northward direction, to redeem & renovate the states below the Potomac dedicated to freedom by the Proclamation 1863 & by the confiscation & emancipation acts already enacted & to be enacted & by the dread [sense] which gives [?] & completeness to them all. Thus in due time shall our northern civilization on the sure foundations of free labour be planted throughout the southern states. Then shall their dilapidated Richmonds, Norfolks, Wilmingtons Vicksburghs & Mobiles give place to a new edition of Bostons Lowells Albanys [?] Cincinnattis & Chicagos Then shall northern commerce gladden their stagnant wharves 22. & rivers & whiten every sea There shall manufacturers & the arts flourish [?] every waterfall & on either side of the steppes of the Alleganies. Then shall the Savannahs of the south be with the prairies of the west & the banks of the [?] & the Rappahanock bless with verdure like those of the Hudson & the Monongahela, Yes by the magic touch of [?] science industry & thrift. That Empire shall be from [?]! All things shall be transformed. By the breath of freedom the nightmare of slavery will be chased from the land & Nature rejoicing in her new strength will welcome these the hardy children of toil with generous gifts of fruits & flowers & rich [?] such as they 23. never reaped in their rock-ribbed ice-bound homes. - In this work of southern reconstruction the black man is to bear his [push?]. By his hand these mildewed fields are to be made fruitful -- those blasted plantations productive -- those dilapidated cities & towns rebuilt & made to hum with the voice & bustle of thrift & enterprize. -- these [?] waters & flowing rivers that now make their music & their power in which shall yet serve the mechanic, the manufacturer, the merchant the Farmer, by turning his wheels & [?] his [skills?], & enrich the nation with their industry By his hand [?] shall be 24. explored the[ir] boundless (wealth of) mines, slumbering throughout so many of these states, untouched by the palsied arm of slavery,- to the blows of freedom will reveal their sickness & their depth. Here then is the appropriate field of labour for these freedmen & women. Not colonization abroad, but reconstruction here, not expatriation to foreign countries but renovation of their own home lands. 3rd What will reconstruction on the basis of freedom do for southern society? By this dread war southern society is to be purged of its baser elements. The Oligarchy that regards slavery as the best condition of society, & the ownership of labour by capital as the normal condition .25. of man, is not only to be broken up, but the oligarchs themselves are to be expelled from the country. The lower classes to be devoured by the war. The remorseless conscription as the south sweeps into the army the great mass of the people where they must die. Thus will the war winnow southern society leaving behind only the negroes & the better class of whites, thus making room for an immense influx of humane, intelligent enterprizing people from Europe and the free states, bearing with them a higher civilization & a purer Christianity. Then the common school will become the "peculiar institution" of the south, academies & colleges will spring up where their sons & 26. daughters may be liberally educated without going as now to Massachusetts Connecticut & New York. as they may then have Harvards Yales & Unions at their own doors. Then dwelling with its congenial crimes of violence & falsehood will end, & a higher code of morals, religion, & politics, will govern the people And the negro the rightful owner of the soil, he has tilled through generations of wrong & injustice shall dwell at last in peace, in the land of orange groves & flowers. secured in the blessings of life liberty & happiness. These states so rich in resources with their mild climates, majestic rivers, & mountains & easily cultivated soil, under the ministration of free labors. free press, free speech & free schools .27. will take such mighty strides in civilization, that its rapidly increasing wealth. shall in a few years cancel the whole expenses of the war. The south in freedom instead of taxing us for their army & naval defenses, Post offices &c shall not only be self dependant, but will pass millions into the treasury of the nation. Slavery that constant drain hitherto on our national virtue & strength once ended the North too shall enjoy an unheard of prosperity. No sectional interests or petty questions of trade or commerce could ever convulse a nation as the vital question of human rights has done. They who have made this war to turn on a Morill Tariff or any other sectional jealousy or interest 28. have not gone deep enough into the philosophy of history to know that revolutions ever turn on vital eternal principles Yes slavery ended, the North too takes a fresh start towards a higher civilization. When peace comes with freedom foreign nations, as well as our own people will feel that the republic rests in a surer & more permanent basis. Hence European Capitalists will hasten to make their investments in this country, knowing in the nature of things that there must be war & tumult in the old world until all nations are based on equality and justice. For years to come shall we be the asylum for lovers of freedom from all parts of the .29. world & the safety Bank for the gold & silver of crafty capitalists. With slavery ends our greatest source of political corruption. The interests of the whole nation will then be in one direction & the bitterness of party in a measure appeased. The moral & religious tone of the nation will be devoted at once. With a great national crime to cover up, to apologize for, in pulpit, forum, & in the exchange, -compelled in its defense to degrade Bible & Constitution our religious & political faith, how could the nation grow in virtue & truth. 30. But why leap over the imperative present to consider all that we shall have on hand at the end of the war? Because the work of the present is decided by our views of the future hence the importance of enlivening & intensifying the faith of our people in the success of the experiment of republicanism, that is clearly the will of God shall be thoroughly & triumphantly tried on this western continent. If we can convince the builder of the new republic, that if slavery is again made the corner stone of the edifice it must surely topple down All can see that the first work to be done is to drag that old stone out of the way & roll it into the gulf .31. If you would end the war end slavery which is the cause of it. If you would found a republic that shall stand the shock of ages, galvanize every man & woman into its true idea It is amazing to hear men talk of when we might have hoped better things of the "future of republicanism" Shall subjects of the Emperor Napoleon take the lead at this turn in magnifying the grandeur of our form of government Shall it be left for Victor Hugo Gasparin & La Bouliya to point out our secret of national success the way in which we can secure an enduring immortality & shall our recreant sons who have tried & proved the fact in peace & war, that man has the power of self-government 32 that individual, voluntary, self imposed, controul is better than centralized arbitrary power! Shall [we] they, to the waiting nations of the earth, who look to us for the law of liberty proclaim the Despot & the Dagger No! This is not the time for that kind of talk, for this war so far from proving ought against our national idea is the crowning glory of the voluntary self governing principle [, In] And our seeming need of great men of nerves to lead us through this sea of troubles, is but another fact in the same direction. "Democracy does not build leaders." We are beyond heroes & hero worship Leave that for Carlisle. Where all men are equal there is no monopoly of rank & power .34. The elevation of the masses Yes this a war of the people & they must plan it & fight it in cabinet & camp & when at last victory comes to our arms as it surely will -- & the day of glorification dawns upon us. We will bring out the triumphal car & place therein not any bogus heroes. Presidents or military chieftains, but the American eagle & that glorious old flag & on equal ground the citizens of the republic shall all walk in joyful procession. But, Who can look over the incidents of this war & say we have had no great men. Our common soldiers have all been great. have all been heroes & shown the most unparralled bravery. In the on many a bloody field of battle. 86. Women of the republic whilst our sires & sons are so bravely bearing our northern banners in the faces of their foes, what shall we do to strengthen their hands & hearts & make their hard won victories triumphant & complete Let us exalt the eternal principles on which a republic rests, with word & pen, as that great hearted woman Fanny Kimble has done, in her late work Life on a Georgian Plantation. No better blow has been dealt on our common foe during the war than she has given. We need to enlist corps of pens & tongues for the war. Our literary men & women should consecrate every thought to liberty & gladly lay their wealth & their reputation on the altar of their country, We need not go to Europe now for dark shadows, for the poetry & images .37. for the hour in which we live is big with destiny, - the land wherein we dwell is classic with the daring deeds & the blood of its heroes. Let the theme of all be liberty. Mind the harmonious chords struck on the nations heart by Whittier Smith Howe but one discordant note now pains the ear & that just sounded by an American traveller (Bayard Taylor) The moment for sneering at society, & reforms & reformer in his own country is to say the least ill-chosen. Who would print his satire at an enemy even in the hour of adversity, what shall we say then of the American citizen who betrays to the world at this time, what in his countrymen, so moves his scorn. What shall we say of the light irreverent .38. use of names emblamed in all our hearts, of noble men & women who for thirty year have dared to stand alone in the defence of freedom. When the greatest need of the republic is mothers able to meet the stern realities of a national revolution, is it well to bid woman counsel with her weakness & her fears. When the brave men to whom she has looked for support & protection lie cold & stiff beneath the sod, why mock her not with dependance! - When through the horrors of the battle field she has been ministering angel commisariat, surgeon chaplin, undertaker to the dying & the dead When weary & alone through the midnight hours she has groped among our fallen heroes, for signs of life & hope oh! start not with refined carpet .39. knight at the thought of a women breathing the air of a dissecting room. When so many of our brave men are coming back maimed & halt & blind oh talk not of the strong arms that are to shelter her against the world None of us who are linked to noble Fathers, Brothers, Husbands, Sons, need no man from Egypt to tell us we are thrice blessed, but the multitudes of women who must ever be their own hands, heads & hearts could draw but little inspiration, to meet the stern realities of life, from the gentle philosophy that drips from the lips [of] Bryant Taylors ideal man, These are not the days for glass slippers fashion plates & [H??] [McHimings?], but for a nobler type of womanhood able to dignify a life of simplicity. virtue & strength, The fearful financial pressure through which we must jump at the close of this war the [revulmin?] arms. Will [to] help those .40. who are brave & courageous; in the right direction. The strikes for higher wages among the labouring classes show that the time is near. They suffer now--to morrow, it will be our turn. Let us begin now to take our first steps in self support- [our first steps towards virtue & a nobler womanhood] for whoever consents to live a life of dependance is just so far degraded in all the nobler attributes of the soul. In the midst of wealth & ease & luxury our men sunk in corruption & our women in idleness--it needed the shock of arms,--the cannon's roar,--the blood of our first born to rinse the nation from its dream of death. This war throws new responsibilities on woman. x Whilst our men with bullet & ballot are fighting the enemy in front & traitors in the rear, let us with the only 41 political right we have under the constitution. the right of petition, build the platform for the next Presidential campaign in universal emancipation. Whilst we rejoice in the Proclamation of the President, let us drive another nail in a sure place by securing an act of Congress. also, The nation must be made to see that slavery is the cause of the war,--that it has been the cause of all our national troubles since the foundation of the government. Aside from the sin of slavery it is a most expensive institution costing us more than all our schools rail-roads, canals harbours, put together. The good common sense of the people must be roused on all these points, until from motives of political economy if not from justice & right they 42. shall push our free institutions from Maine to Louisiana. We cannot have a despotism in one half our country & a republic in the other. We cannot have peace until our government is homogenous, until the people demand the same civil & political status for every citizen of the republic. If we are to have free institutions to hand down to our children we must defend them now against the barbarians in arms. Our action now decides the future of this republic.x Let no ignoble peace prolong this struggle a heritage of woe & poverty to another generation. Talk not of reconstruction on the old slaveholding basis. In the progress of civilization the nation has taken an onward step that cannot be retraced .43. Talk not of separatism, there is no geographical division strong enough to render a people bound together as we are by one political & religious faith, by the same language national experience & blood. The mass of the people North & South believe in republican institutions. Think you the slaves & poor whites accept the doctrine that God made Jeff Davis & his compeers all booted & spurred to ride them & their children to the third & fourth generation. Do we propose to let our sons & daughters who live in the south, - held there by the ties of interest [&] friendship & marriage entrench themselves in a despotism, beyond our political religious & social influence outside the blessings of freedom .44. for which their Fathers fought No! A nation that has celebrated the birthday of her Independence on every 4th of July for near a century must have taught her children to love liberty better than peace. No separation is impossible. We need the democratic demand at the south to help us make war on the slaveholding copperhead nobility that spring up here & there like noxious weeds mid our free institutions. Talk of division--there is one kind I should like to see tried. By way of a scientific experiment, it might be well to set aside the Gulf states for southern aristocrats & northern copperheads that a nation of gentlemen might show us northern scoundrels to what a high state of refinement 45. & civilization they could bring themselves entirely removed from the common herd of Yankees rail-splitters & learned Blacksmiths. Just imagine Jeff Davis & his campers sitting on the piazza of his plantation home studying the sciences of peace & government while Vallandingham, Fernando Wood & Horatio Seymour hoed his cotton & his corn in the genial sunshine of his beneficence. How many of you think it would take that trio of peace philosophers to lose themselves with the faith that God created all men free & equal. In my opinion it would not be many days before the Yankee notions they had carried with them would suggest the idea that the southern Lords though born to rule, might as well 46 take their turn at the hoe when the sun was hot & let the poor copperheads rest awhile in the shade. An order of nobility looks very different when you are under the wheel from what it does when you are on the top. Citizens of the republic you have heard much of the genius of our free institutions, have you ever in your leisure hours given any serious consideration to the striking peculiarities of our national character, the marked difference between us & other nations of the earth. Have you ever gone deep enough into our national life to rise from your meditations with a feeling' of holy awe that you were a citizen of the only nation on the globe whose flag is an emblem of liberty. 47 Did you ever in your mind being fully respond to the declaration "all men are created equal" & feel the responsibility laid in you as an American citizen to exalt that divine idea. Have you ever thought over with pride & pleasure the essential points in which we differ from the governments of the old world. There you behold man in every variety of phase under monarchs, Emperors, Popes & Czars, crushed beneath super- stitions, political & theological dogmas false customs, creeds & codes everywhere the victims of class & caste, while on this western continent we have tried the experiment of self government freedom of speech person & press free churches free schools & free homes 48. & given every man a voice in the government. While European civilization recognizes an order of nobility, one class of men special favorites of Heaven set aside to read & think & be happy to live on the toil of degraded millions. & to make laws for those whose needs & wants they never knew--in our political creed we scout all class & caste- our working men here make the laws, our self-made man is our true nobleman, his coat of arms the good deeds he has done, the noble words he has uttered, his livery is the love & gratitude of the masses on whom he has showered his benefits. Such is our creed! Do you glory in what makes us to differ. Do you feel proud of your country 49. You who have travelled in the old world, tell us. if in foreign courts mid Kings & nobles, Lords & Ladies, amid the glitter of jewelled crowns, and dresses the pomp & ceremony that class commands; did you stand self-poised & feel yourself as an American citizen, on a higher plane than the children of folly who swelled those payments? Did your virtuous heart penetrate all that tinsel & sham & take in the condition of the great masses outside that charmed circle who suffer that those may shine? Did you (unlike so many of our snobs) come back to your country rejoicing in the education & independence of the working classes. 50 in the necessary self-centered & dependance of the wealth classes & in your soul thank God that there was one spot on this green earth where mankind & labour were dignified? If so you are worthy the name of an American citizen & are ready in an hour like this to consecrate every energy of your being to save our free institutions from the dangers that threaten them. What woman so ignoble in an hour like this, to spend all her forces on dress & fashion. Oh! ship the flounces flowers & rat-tailed puffs to foreign courts where they belong--the daughters of this revolution have a nobler work on hand. Brave women are needed on the battle field in camp 51 & hospital wherever true men nobly suffer & die. There is work tho for all our girls [to teach] in those southern homes to teach a race made heathen by our falsehood & our shame, & in our free homes too we need to teach new lessons of justice & equality. Nowhere are brave words more needed than among our so called higher classes. It is there treason is hatched, republicanism promised a failure the Despot & the Dagger a success. Yes these are the days for work, for earnest words & prayers. Wait not to carry with you the wealthy the fashionable, the educated the refined, but work wherein you can, it matters not who stands by your side, publicans 52 sinners or infidels, for if a noble earnest purpose fills your soul you walk with Angels & God is your Father. Who can be insensible to the eventful pages of history we are living now? In reading of Greece & Rome have you not often wondered that in the last declining days of those republics the people could so gaily dance & feast on the threshhold of their downfall? In our day are there no listless men & women, no dry bones to galvanize into a higher life. Go then to those who in their palace homes sit calm & passionless alike indifferent to our triumphant future & this desolating war. Show them the true republic 53 if faithful to our charge shall yet be theirs. Show them the blessings yet in store for them & their children's children. But if neither through patriotism or self love can you rouse their dull souls to activity, then torture them with the tales of horror that come to us on every breeze from that southern Bastille of abominations. Tell them what our fair haired boys now suffer at the hands of their barbarian foes. Tell them of the refinements of cruelty tried on their slaves for centuries, now brought home to us in the quivering flock the bruised spirits of our half starved naked 54 naked soldiers who fire & drop through weary days & months & years in dens of filth disease & darkness. Say to those idle praters of law & Constitution, that northern mothers want those prison doors unbarred even though black hands push aside the bolts. We want those southern tyrants humbled to the last even tho' black heels press their necks. We want the dignity of manhood & labour reasserted on this continent even though the black race prove themselves men & unsheathe the sword of liberty. 55 It is a most significant fact that every nation that has ever fought for liberty on her own soil is now represented in our grand army. The solo chanted in Asia Africa Europe & the British Isles in every clime & tongue is now united with us on this western continent in the Grand chorus of Freedom. Above the din of arms-- the cannons roar--the groans of the dying--the lamentations of mothers for their first born rises soft & clear to those who have ears to hear, the divine symphony sounded on the cross & echoed from pole to pole, "All men are created equal." 4 Our Fathers declared the true theory of government a century ago, but when they came to apply it like all the governments of the old world they subordinated man to institutions & never until we appreciate the dignity & majesty, the divine origin & glorious destiny of the race shall we build governments that will secure the life liberty and happiness of [the race] mankind. The dignity & royalty of human nature has always asserted itself for the few. All ages have had their favored sons & daughters, their Kings & Priests of the house of David & order of Melchizedek but on this continent we declared all men Kings & Priests with God, all of the blood royal all heirs apparent to the throne. To make these declarations a fact we are now relaying the foundations of the republic. Let us then base it on the true American idea of individual rights, respect reverence love for the individual, this is the foundation of all government & religion. 5 Now before we begin to build let us ask ourselves two questions, are we satisfied with things as they now are, with the moral chaos that surrounds us in the church the state the home if not what do we prepare for the future. Satisfied with what our daily Journals tell us of the wholesale political corruption & bribery that unblushingly shows itself everywhere from the ruling spirit in the White House to the policemen in our streets. Pardons sold for a price in Washington & justice in our Supreme Courts. I know a well authenticated 10. 6 case, in which the sum of 25,000 was paid a supreme court Judge for a decision. How are these places of public trust filled. Why are our best our true, noble, royal men in retirement while unprincipled scheming politicians rule the republic, Honor & justice. are articles of merchandize & manhood is the sacrifice in securing the gifts of the people. It is enough to fill the true patriot with apprehension to hear what men tell us of each other. Our danger lies not in the direction of despotism 11. .7. in the one man power in centralization but in the corruption of the people It is not the poor unlettered foreigner alone, who sells his vote, but native born American citizens Congressmen Senators Judges Jurors, "white mules" who own $250 in real estate & can read the Constitution. It is not in Wall Street alone that men gambol in stoks but [in] our state & national capilets even our courts of 12 .8. of justice are made mules of merchandize. Who can go into our courts & see the difference made between the rich & poor criminal, the . heedless, heartless, hasty way in which those without money friends or influence are doomed to long imprisonment or death without feeling that justice ever needs a new baptism,. Go into our jails, prisons, asylums alms houses where the mirmins [of] party rule with a High 13. .9. hand, where there is no eye sure omnipotence to pity no strong arm to shelter & protect, & you will witness such wrongs & abuses as would make angels weep. Read the horrid revelations made by the grand jury in the city of New York & published to the world in our daily papers of the loathsome condition of the jails, prisons & station houses, in the metropolis of the country, where a thousand 14 .10. spires are pointing to Heaven & ten thousand voices pray thy kingdom come Think of a troop of young boys shut up in a common prison unwashed uncombed devoured with vermin & forced to choose sentinels of their own number for the midnight hours lest they should be devoured by vermin. Think of men & women in the hot nights of August, shut up in narrow cells, crying grannies 15 .11. sobbing curses swearing imploring for air to breathe & some spot to lie down in peace free from rats mice & vermin. Think of a grand jury & think of a grand jury whose duty it is to see that all these places of confinement are kept clean & healthy, confessing to the world that they had not visited these black holes of Calcutta in a year. Ah! my friends has the poor criminal no rights you & I are bound to respect 16. .12. Our whole criminal legislation our jails & prisons are a disgrace to the civilization of the 19th century. Will not God hold you & me responsible for the physical & moral well being of the multitudes of men & women boys & girls in such misery despair & death. In the whole universe of God we see no punishment by direct fiat, but ever legitimately following violated law, as cause & effect. If we followed out the justice of Heaven while we restrained men for the good of society, we would 17. .13. make this sentence of restraint a real permanent benefit & developement to the poor criminal himself. Our prisons instead of being the dark gloomy abodes they now are, where all self respect & hope & joy is crushed in the human soul should be bright & beautiful with books music & flowers everything to raise the dormant moral & spiritual powers so that when they return to life they come with new habits & tastes, new forces to resist temptation. With a trade or 18 .14. profession, & the accumulations of their industry for their support while making for themselves a new place & character in the world without. Under our present system of repression the last state of these erring children of vice is worse than the first. Oh! thinking men & women weigh the mountains of sorrow that rise up within our prison walls, the endless wail in the ears of omnipotence look at the moral & spiritual deformity the idiocy the insecurity the abominable vices propagated by our infernal system of prison punishment & discipline 19 15 & tell me are you satisfied. Look at the church divided into sects, expending its forces in pulpit & religious journals belaboring each other, for the most shocking differences in speculative faith, while all the monstrous wrongs of their day & generation go unrebuked & men & women made in the image of God are not deemed half so precious as the dogmas & traditions & superstitions repudiated by earnest souls in all ages at the stake the rack in the Inquisition. 20 16 When that unfeeling and infamous wretch, Torquemada, the director of the Catholic Inquisition of Spain in 1483, gave to the flames in a few years no less than 8,800 human beings, besides condemning 90,000 to perpetual imprisonment; and when John Calvin, in 1500 burnt Servetus over a slow fire, both these inhuman butchers undoubtedly believed that they were "rooted and grounded in the Christian faith and practice." But burning people was no evidence of good character. Neither Catholics or Protestants burn or rend men's bodies now for their theological opinions but they consign their souls to hell fire & their lives to numberless crucifixions of the spirit such as those only know who reject the popular creeds & codes & customs. ¶ And what of the home. You scarce take up a paper but you read of murder by violence a slow poisoning at the fireside 21. Divorce cases are so numerous in our courts as to furnish business for a district branch of the Profession. These trials with all their disgusting details are spread out "Forever ours for good or ill. Whittier. On us the burthen lies. God's balance watched by angels Is hung across the skies. Shall Justice, Truth, & Freedom Turn the poised & trembling scale Or shall the evil triumph And robber wrong prevail Shall the broad land o'er which our flag In starry splendor waves Forego through us its freedom And bear the tread slaves. 11 21 Divorce cases are so numerous in our courts as to furnish business for a district branch of the Profession. These trials with all their disgusting details are spread out "Forever ours for good or ill Whittier On us the burthen lies. God's balance watched by angels Is hung across the skies. Shall Justice, Truth, & Freedom Turn the poised & trembling scale Or shall the evil triumph And robber wrong prevail Shall the broad land o'er which our flag In starry splendor waves Forego through us its freedom And bear the tread of slaves. 11 22 18 in our daily Journals all showing an amount of folly & crime of vanity & falsehood hatred malice & all manner of uncharitableness, that drives the weak to despair & the strong to earnest efforts to establish a new order of things. Now my friend thus briefly reviewing the state the church & the home, I ask you is not this (condition of things and in view of this moral chaos) why fear a new experiment as we look back we see that bad as our surroundings are, the past has been worse, & that there has been a gradual .19. 23 improvement from the x beginning in every department of life, & the only reason why the moral world moves as slowly as it does is because men so tenaciously cling to the past. They always fear the onward step. They always see Lions ahead, though they seldom take note of the vices & crimes precident to sloth luxury & ease, that like wild beasts are close upon their track ready to devour them Remember we are the educators of the race. We mould the religion the morals the politics of the nation, not by the sermons we preach but by the lives we live. For love & mercy can serve the weakest arms the faintest hearts to strength & courage. It is very pleasant to hear but when we have nothing on which to lean we must needs stand. 24 20 Are you satisfied with the moral chaos. Like that first conservative would you preserve things as they are or are you ready for an onward step & this brings me to the second point. What do you propose for the future, in other words on what basis shall we reconstruct our nation, divided by the war into its original elements. There are various fine spun theories as to what our condition now is, & the way [to] of salvation. Must we have 25 .21. had a terrible national convulsion & are now halting divided & distracted we all know. We thought the reelection of President Lincoln would make all safe in his assassination it gave us the blackest page in our national history but Johnson reings in his stead & has already declared war to the teeth. Republicans now assure us if we can tide over to the next Presidential campaign & get another republican dynasty secured that order & peace & plenty will be ours In thought or word, or speech or pen Let [none] no one now for profit or praise falsely cater to the narrow prejudices of [our] the nonthinking masses. .23. twin sisters & should ever go hand in hand. The family is but the nation in miniature &c &c [Old] Sojourner Truth that wonderful old slave woman, whom Mrs. Stowe has made immortal says in summing up this whole question where is the use of the world walking on one leg when it has two. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.