• v * # BY DAVID OVER. SPEECH OP HON. JOHN HICKMAN, AT A REPUBLICAN MASS MEETING IN THE CITY OP PHILADELPHIA. My subject, to-uigbf, fellow-citizens, is polit ical issues and Presidential candidates. Tho intelligent voter will so shape bis actions as to make it conduce to the success of prinoi pie rather than the elevation of a man. He will feel this to be more incumbent upon bim at such a time as the present, when the tenden cies of parties arc more distinctly marked than in any previous campaign. It will bo my ob- j ject, this evening, to endeavor to exhibit, in a , distinct light, the dividing line between the j political p irties of the day, and to ascertain, if possible, what, in all probability, would be the effect upou the country of the election of j the respective candidates for ibe Presidency. If this were a strife merely between individ ual tueu, it would possess but trifling import ance, and 1 should not trouble you with either remark or suggestion. Kut as I regard the .contest, the determination will soon be made not alone to our value iu the Confederacy, bat as to the destiny of the nation itself. The policy of our GoVernment is, io many respects, undefined. Tho more serious ques tions affecting us have but recently become topics of careful consideration. Our fathers were unable to farsce, during the formation of the Constitution, the greater embarrassment to which the future of the country was to be sub jected, and consequently no provision was made against them. Subjects which distracted an 1 divided them, ir. their deliberations, have lost much of their former consequence, and we seem to be more anxious to ascertain what they should hive said further, than what they ac tually did say. Even the controversies in which we ourselves bavo been engaged within the last decade, have been settled or lost sight of, and we are now about to enter into tiiat conflict which is to define many of the most important powers of the Govcruuient, and to fix the character of the dominant institutions of the country. The propriety of eligibility to office, the exact relations between Federal aud local authority, the constitutionality of banks and internal improvements, tho regulation of the currencyf and the distribution of the pro ceeds of the public lands, are uo longer agi tated; and discussions upon tbeua are only to be found in our past history, and in the fossil remains of extinct parties. It may iu truth be said that old things have pissed away and all things have become new. There was a time, not very far back in the past, when slavery was univetsaJly admitted to be a wrong in se, unwise in practice, detrimen tal to both individuals and couimunites, and against the spirit and genius of our free sys tem Now, however, it is declared to be di vine, in its origin, the highest type of human civilization, and in-iispensible to the maiotain ance of a Democratic republic. Formerly it was regarded as a condition to be constantly re duced and finally to be extinguished. Now, on the contrary, the demand is urged that it snail be extended, and made controlling. Here 1 find the cause or source of the great politi cal issue of the present. Shall slavery become a national institution and a governing power in the country, or shall it remain as the Con stitution left it ? This is not an inquiry pro pounded by us of the North, but forced upon us by our brethren of the South. They require an answer at our hands and we cannot avoid response if we would. Silence upon our part, under the circumstances, could not be con-tru ed otherwise than us affirmative of their claims. I make the distinct avowal that slavery seeks the acquisition of ail our Dew States; for two objects: first, to secure the value of slaves, and, second, to direct the powers of the Fed era! Government. "i be irrepressible conflict,"' so frequently comnie'.ted on and denounced by the Souib, is constantly admitted and acted on by them.— i bey are too astute as observers aud sagacious as politicians Di>t to know there is a necessary '■nd unending antagonism between liberty and slavery. If they thought differently there would be more peace and harmony between the sec tions. It is there fuli appreciation of the strug gle for the mastery which arms them for the con flict,and induces them to wrestle for the victory. There is no more evideut fact than this: the ad vocates of slavery seek its extension so as to lim it the influence of the sentiment of freedom. We hate tyranny, and would prevent such a con summation. They ask that uli who shall be held as property —be regarded, in the chaste 'anguage of an eloquent Senator, as '•mud- Mils.'' WO believe ih*t Go J created all men free, and imposed labor upon them for their advantage. Which hypothesis shall be proven true? We shall see hereafter! But know ing that the principles of justice are uniform and eternal, 1 presume to believe that those principles will prevail, and burnau rights be maintained. lam not ignorant or the fact that 'hose who sappose they might rightfully make merchandise of mothers and their children •>eem to think they cao shape the designs of IVovidcnco and rewrite the history of humanity, everything our fathers thought, aud' for the maintenance of which they perilled life and bonor. I must be pardoned for disagreeing with them, and protesting against such con clusions. The extension of negro slavery into the Ten t-ones of the United Elates has become a settled 1 policy of the Democratic party. This reality cannot be disguised, and ought not to be de fied. It is accounted for. .Unity of interest and unity of desire will always pfoduce a per fect concentration of strength. Tho fortunes °f the South have become completely identified j *h their peculiar domestic relations. By ueir Harmony they have been euabled to gov- i -rn tho Democratic party, and, thus tar, to govern the country through the agency of that '■ A Weekly Paper, Devoted to Literature, Politics, the Arts, Sciences, Agriculture, &c., &c—Terms: One Dollar and Fifty Cents in Advance. parly. The vital force of that organization being in the South, and slavery propagandist!] regarded there as a necessity, it cannot be considered strange th t the influence of the party should be so directed as to fortify doc trines most congenial to the supposed welfare of those who direct the machinery. To many it has seemed unaccountable that executive ac tion and legislative and judicial proceedings should be shaped, from year to year, as to strengthen the few at the expense of the great mass of our people. Let it qo longer be re garded as a marvel or a mistery : the respon sibility of it rests with those Northern men in whom we have reposed our confidence, and clothed with the garments of authority. Ex amine the record of votes in your National Congress, and there learu why it is that North ern capital and labor are constantly born down by the enormous weight of Southern exaction. When your reasonable requests are denied, I tell you, with earnestness and emphasis, it is because eight millions of men eoutrol eighteen uiiiiians, through our representatives elected by a party pledged to interests adverse to ours. Slavery educates its statesmen in a high school, under able professors. It teaches that the Northern men are cowardly, and that their am bition is linked with avarice ; and,unfortunate ly for us, it Ins arguments to fortify its faith. In half a century it may not be credited that less than a dozen men, trained uader these cir cumstances, so alarmed a i'euDsvlvania Pre sident as to induce him to recast a message, violate the plighted faith upon which be was elected, disgrace his native State, and degrade the high offi.-e to which he bad then but re cently beeu elevated. And yet not only this has been done almost within our presence, but the Representatives of free constituencies lnvo : been induced to lend their aid to force sorvile : tahor into competion with that of white men, aud a slave State into the sisterhood of inde pendencies to throw the balance of power ag nst thoir own (eople. Some of these are] now not only respectable members of the j Douglas church, but missionaries among the Uube ieviog and outside barbarians. 1 Lava somo of them very distinctly in my recollection, and would be quito refreshing to hear their re marks of laudation of popular sovereignty, such as they denied to Kansas, and in dentin- ! cialion ot Southern demands, to which thev succumbed as reluctantly as a thrice-seduced damsel to her lover. I believe it was Mirabeau who said "the presents of despotism ate always dangerous j" he should have included in bis remark, the threat of the tyrant as well as bis reward. The allegation bat Southern combinations are formed for tne purpose of counteracting op position extremists, is sheer false pretence, re sorted to as a bliud and cheat. No fears ever sprung from such parentage. Slavery does uot exist by legal enactment anywhere ; it is the clild ot force, aud as the sentiment of the world is against it, it canuot live without the sustaining hand ot power. Surrounded by an atmosphere of freedom, it is necessarily un safe, and defences become necessary. V assalage and subjection Dtver imptess themselves, with l out violence, upon the natural man, whilst, on j the coutrary, the sentiments of freedom must | forever disturb the subjects of a despotism.— The South, to be safe, must, therefore, extend, through and beyond ail the countervailing in fluences to which 1 have referred, and conse quently our frontier possessions must be cap tured. But as the inherent weakness of the South is cot equal to this task, craft is resort ed to supply the needed assistance. Upon whom can this be more advantageously brought to bear than a President without courage, a judge without candor, or a legislator without integrity? We are sold or betrayed hourly, aud if we had uot more forbearance than dis cretion we would terrify traitors. Millions of acres ot fertile lands, every now and then, are filched from our industrial classes, who require thetn for the support and education of their families, to bo turned iuto barren wastes by those who have already blasted more than one half of our soil as with an avalanche of fire, factories aud workshops are loitering iu rums, and families and neighborhoods lelt starving and in rags, because fostered industry is not required iu that region whore the laboring man has no rights which the owner of men is bound to respect. And ships rot at our wharves, and storehouses become but a rendezvous for idlers aud vagrants, for the reason that uncompensa ted chattel sinews yield fruits more cheaply than compensated skill, and require no shield against the pauper products of Europe. If a change of tariff laws were required by the South iustead of the North, they not could fail of its accomplishment. In that oase the jPresi dent would advocate it with ardor, if not with sincerity, and our Senators would again illus trate tho fact of their truckling subjection to those who secretly abhor their baseness and iutidelity. Our earnest wishes are not only constantly degraded, but our prosperity is re morselessly paralyzed by our servants, without an audible murmur on our part; and wo are not much averse, as we have often proven, to conferring new leases of offices upon such as deceive us, to affurd tbeui further opportunities fr mischief. Does this seem unaccountable ? 1 suggest no, in view of the truth I havo just stated, that the party soliciting them has its heart and brain in the South, and its obeying members merely in the North. The remedy for this shameless evil is as easy as it is sim ple. We need but imitate the example set us by those who have caused this condition of things. Concord and inflexibility of purpose will accomplish ail we ask. Nothing else ever can or ever will. We might as well expeet a divided and discordant army, mar shalled uoder opposing generals, to capture the powerful and thoroughly disciplined and guarded city, as for Northern rights and North ern honor to be sustained by men in tho pay and keeping of those who would weaken aud BEDFORD. PA., FRIDAY. AUGUST 10, 1860. ! reduce u?. In the ordinary business of life we never trust fbe faithless and dishonest; I can imagine no reason for engaging sucb as sen tinels over our entire fortunes. Just so long as our custom houses, post offices, navy yards, and mints shall be stocked with thousands se lected virtually by those who are in branded opposition to us, and whoso principal business, we are instructed to believe, is compounding politics with perfidy, it will be impossible to render our condition batter than it is. These leprosy-yards must be oleaused. Their occu pants load the air with a contagious corruption. Throughout their bodias aud their souls jhey bear the parks of the distemper with which the aristocratic pollutiouists has touched tbem. I risk but little in saying that at this very hour, this mighty phalanx, scattered throughout the eighteen Northern States, having a common aud powerful bond of union, are devising mea sures to dispo'tl our industrial classes, by con fining them in densely-crowded fields of labor, or forcing tbem to enter into competition and companionship with ignorant aud brutalized bondmen. They all, ves all, have been brought to believe that the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence are but sterotypad lie-; that founders of the nation had but a sorry couccp tiou of inalieuable rights: that the Constitution which thoy framed was intend.d as an instru ment of cruelty and crime; and that the fairest feature of frco republican association is a union of States peopled with the lowest grade of i slaves? Am I right? What is the trouble j against which we havo to contend? Is it not the steady influence of what may with propri- | ety be called political conspiracies to mislead I the public iniud, and taint the public heart? Is it not an Administration blackened with treacb- I ery, and crooked and tottering under the weight ! of its depravity, using ail the patronage of- I fice, and all the fascinations of position to ut terly destroy us, by ruakiug the Territories or the country but garrisons for the enemies oi • freedom, aud the labor of white men degrading and fruitless beyond the limits of the present i States? Jf iam in error, what is the correct j interpretation of the political discords of the : last six years? I anticipate fully that my suggested mode of re dress for existing abuses will be denounced as sec tional; to which I answer it it be so, the antidote to a bane may be a bane itself, '•similta timililns curanlur." Hut its liability to the charge is denied/ The real sectionalism is arrayed against us; Ido but counsel systematic and persisteut resistance.— In studies of the fundamental doctrines of our common charter, and tbe dispensations of the fa vors of Government, we should never know a North, a South, an East oi a West. My com plaint is that others act as if they thought differ ently. I trust we shall always be able to command the exercise of such a patriotism and comity as to forever preclude us from aggression upon a section interior to ours ia every element of maternal strength and greatness. It can never be otherwise than dastardly to press upon ibe weak and sickly. It will lie noticed that I have spoken of the De mocratic party without reference to its present dis traction. My reason for so doing is found in the opinion I entertain that these dissensions do not af fect issues—as neither branch indicates a disposi tion to meet, fairly and openly, the great political problem of the times. Iu casting the votes we should lie accurately informed as to their effect up on the policy we desire to see established. We should not be made instruments in the hands o * anv ambitious man,or the hands of any combination of reckless and unscrupulous men, to force an unnat ural growth of slavery in the country, and to blast the hopes of our own people, contrary to what has heretofore been the understanding of the Constitu tion of the United States, and in palpable viola tion of what has been regarded as a settled nation al policy. It should be a matter of stinging regret to us, if from our bearing in the present contest we could be fairly charged hereafter with a viola tion of the principles we have long professed to cherish, or with having imposed any, the slightest impediment in the pathway of a national, weli grounded, and progressive liberty. The all-absorbing qnestion now presented to the American citizen, for what will prove to be his ul timate decision, I have watched narrowly as it has risen into importance from year to year, and I think I know the opinions of tbe several Presi dential candidates respecting it. I am not aware that the supporters of Mr. Breck inridge attempt any concealment as to his designs in case of his success. If they should desire to resort to prevarication, they have placed it entirely without their power, by the' frankness and boldness, and I had almost said the recklessness of their declarations. He has been brought forth promi nently, alike in speech and platform, as the Achilles of the armies of the South, and as the determined foe of free soil, free speech and free men. He stands u[>on no single Democratic sentiment, un less, indeed, what were regarded by all statesmen within the last fifteen years as the pretentious here sies of John C. Calhoun can be so regarded. He so reads the teachings of the sages of tbe past, and their primary law, as to make it fruitless to attempt an exclusion of his peculiar and favorite institution from the organized Territories, and so as to make it indispensable that Congresses, Courts and Presi dents should exercise all their ingenuity, and all their powers, to fortify and sustain it there. Leg islative action is to be invoked, judicial decrees and executive fiats pronounced, navies equipped and armies marshalled, to exclude forever every settler therefrom who will not bow down before the black god of his idolatrous worship. I appeal to you, freemen, to know whether this is "the Democracy of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson. I appeal to you to know whether you hare ever found anything in the arinals of par ties so insulting to the understanding, autil within the lifetime of the youth who has not yet reached his majority. 1 aopeal to you to know whether the honesty, intelligence, and unmixed blood of. the offspring of .Northern mothers can erer accept an excuse for those who would endeavor • to fasten such a ruler upou us. But we may congratulate ourselves that even official zeal can perceive no chance for Mr. Breckinridge's election. If there had ever been any, the recent-stump speech of Mr. Buchanan would hare effectually disposed of it.— amount of popularity would be able to stand against the encomiums of such an advocate. 11 is mid night appeal can only be accounted for by suppo sing the "old public functionary" was unable to ouhterate bis animosities toward "the young gen tleman of Kentucky,"' and that his well known craft suggested a speech as the readiest aud least offensive means ef destruction. Such suggestions are the more reasonable as it is not to he imagined that the gyved tenant of the White House should for a moment believe, after the investigations which have been had, and the exposures which have been made, such testimony as he volunteered could be otherwise than ruinous to any cause— The daring evinced by him on the occasion, was only equalled by his lsck of self-respect, and his titter disregard of the circumstances by which he was surrounded and which should have restrained him. Whatever conclusions may be drawn as to my estimate of Mr. Breckinridge's character as a poli tician, I can only say that my esteem for bim is profound when brought into comparison witn that which ] entertain for his Democratic competitor.— There are few, if any, living men concerning whom more has been said, and less really known, than Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. Therl are thous ands, by fur too many thousands, now sustaining bim under the mistaken and delusive idea that be is directing his efforts to counteract tbe plans of the Southern Democracy. This is a frightful halluci nation, but a natural one, when we take into con sideration the humiliating fact that all that devo tion could do has been done, by those surrounding bis person, to distort a true record, and to stamp a Counterfeit character for him on the public mind. Viewing hitn as one of the most unsafe and treach erous of leaders, you will pardon me for certain statements which it now seems necessary should be j made, and the correctness of which, I presume, will not be impugned. Phave not yet forgotten, When in the winter of 1855-">6, during the first ses sion of tbe Thirty-fourth Congress, the residents of Kansas, asseverating that the cardinal principle of tho Kansas-Nebraska act had been wantonly an.i wickedly nullified, that pride and violence, con cocted in the blue lodges of Missouri, had invaded their homes and imposed a foreign rule upon them for the purpose of forcing npon them institutions : which they abhorred, and invoking tbe interposi-, tion of Congress in their behalf, the prided father | of "untrammelled popular sovereignty" turned his j back upon his violated child, and closed his ears, as j ia death, to complaints of outrage almost without a parallel in the civilization ot the century. These despoiled pioneers, who had taken up their abode in tfco territory under the most solemn guarantees of self government, only asked to prove their ac cusation; and to be relieved from oppression. In other words, they declared they never had been able to enjoy self-government, that they were ruled b* invaders, and demanded the sovereignty confer red by law upon them Mr. Douglas should j h'iTe been the first man to fly to their relief; and it he bad been as completely dedicated to the princi- ; pies of his bill, as some would make us believe, he j would have urged investigation and carried it. So j far from having done so, he put himself in the lead j bf those Senators most hostile to an exposition, ' and became the mere mouthpiece, advocate, and ■ apologist of tho9e engaged in t lie work of forcing ' slavery upon an unwilling people. He enjoyed at that time the full confidence of the South, and his Democracy wis ortho dox, because he* was loyal to bis taskmasters, willing to do battle for their most extravagant demands. He was then chairman of the Com mittee on Territories, and I cull attention to -bis report as such, made March 12, 185(5, as conclusive upou tie point 1 have stated. In that paper he could fiud nothing to say against foreign conspiracies to invade the soil of Kan sas and coutrol elections, but be bad much to offer in condemnation of Eastern associations to encourage removal thither. He could dis cover DO jrregularitics iu the return of Mr. Whitfield, the pro slavery delegate to the House of Representatives, but be clearly dis cerned that tae Territorial Legislature was a legally elected body, with perfect authority to enact the most and arbitrary slave codes, and that the complaints of fraud and force were gotten up merely to stiiuulaie and exeitc North ern emigration. At tho time of waich I speak, there was no one in Congress or out of Con gress, in office or out of office, who exerted himself more uutiringly to perpetuate that reigu of terror inaugurated to insure the ad mission of Kansas iuto the Unioa us a slave State. 1 fear there are uiaoy now beariug up the banner inscribed with tbe nauio of this Senator, who never have fully understood, or who have forgotten, this tarnished page in his history. If there has ever been a uiore deter mined foe to the growth of freedom iu Kan sas, or to the principles of the Nebraska-Kan sas kill than Stepaen A. Douglas, he has been able to keep himself very much under cover, it is gratifying, however, to make a single re mark in bis favor; it is this, that he seems as wiiiing as tho most ardent of his friends to to divert attention trom this period in his ca reer. lam uot aware that, in either essay or address, lie has ventured to recur to it; but, on the contrary, he seems disposed to treat it as a blank in his life. Whilst these proceedings were progressing IID the Senate, the other branch of Congress ! carried resolutions of investigation under a j close division of parties, ao