Hon. S. S. Cov, of
Ohio, made a speech before the Democratic Union Association of New York a few days since.
All the state and lobbies of the ball were filled, so great was the army of the
Yankees to here the representative man of the
Western Democracy.
The speech contains some truths which are evidently rankling in the
Western mind, and we make some extracts from it which are very reliable and interesting:
The Tribute paid by the West to the East.
* * * * As a Western man, representing the capital of the leading State of the
East west during there past six years, I have not been unobservant of the signed in that quarrel have persistently opposed all schemes of secession and division I yet opposed them.
But I am far child the impulse and sentiment of the
West.
The ersotion of the States watered by the
Mississippi and its tributaries an independent Republic, standing on its own rancorous, mineral and agricultural, with and so far that if you "tickle it with a hoe it will taught with a harvest"--[cheers]--a numerous with which would be enough by the
South and the
East, yet choosing for itself is cheapest and best outlet to the sea; banded together by river and homogeneity of interest is becoming some thing more than a dream.
It is the talk of every other Western man. All fell into it with a facility which has caking to the olden since of nationality.
The Western farmer who is selling his corn for ten cents per bushel, if he fines no use it for firewood, is not easily satisfied that there does not exist somewhere away through which those who act for him at
Washington may afford him relief.
At least to will, if the relief cannot be prospective.--He is perfectly aware that while New English is getting the benefits, the
West is suffering the burdens of this war. In
New England the merchants and manufacturers have accumulated fortunes with Aladdin-like rapidity.
Their wages are higher and convicts abundant; while the
West, with he
Mississippi scaled, is charged extortionate is in the transportation of its produce, and in the price of its purchases.
Its people are robbed by tariff, and robbed on what they sell and what they buy.
Mr. Beecher has boasted and God has given the
Yankee that intelligible that knows how to turn to gold all it brethren [Laughter] It is his insatiate rapidity mingled with his Puritanism, which is now making men study the new which makes New York wander why, with a less population,
New England has twelve
Senators to her two! One, too, ponders the face that her population legislator, by 435,294, than five
New England states, yet they have ten
Senators while she has two!
The
West is beginning to ask whether this political equality among the States made for a wise reason, is to be used for her oppression; whether to that source is the partial legislation which fosters manufacture and burdens the consumer; which hampers the free interchange and enterprise of this great emporium; which this off the competition of the world, and gives to
New England fabrics the monopoly among ten millions of Western farmers.
Why are we to pay fifty per cent more for goods, and lose fifty per cent, on wheat, and corn, and pork?
Fifty per cents!
I should say ninety per cent, adding the cost of gold, is which the tariffs are paid, to the custom duties, which the consumer at last pays.
To gratify one favored class and session are the laws of economy suspended with the
Constitution?
[Laughter and cheers.] Is free trade good, when it takes off the duty and stops the revenue on madder and coloring matter, but bad if it lets in free cotton and woolen fabrics?
Is it right to tax
Illinois whiskey usual the manufacture to stopped, to gratify the members from
Maine, and let the tariff remain on wood screws, to enrich a Rhode, Island company?
Oath is made in the
West and the other in
New England; but is that the reason why the one should be burdened by an internal tax in destroy, while the other bears an external tax to foster?
Do you wonder that, at public meetings
West, it is resolved that the
Mississippi Valley shall no longer be tributary to Yankee cupidity and fully, and that men madly cry but; "
New England fanaticism and speculation have made clerical
New England stands in the way of reunion!
Perish
New England that the
Union may live!--[Great cheering, and a voice, "We've had enough of her."] There is a legend related of a Lawrence: "As he lay on the gridiron, conceive that he was sufficiently done on one side, he requested the cooks, if not too inconvenient, to turn him over and do him on the other." [Laughter.] I fear the
West will never be canonized if it requires such double sacrifices to reach the saintly calender.--[Laughter]
But these economic abuses can be righted by another Congress.
The evils are temporary.
They would be borns, but unhappily they seemed to be accompanied by an element harder to master — the Puritanism of
New England.
[] This is bred in the bone.
It is the same now that it was hundreds of years ago. Like begets like.
Generation succeeds generation with the same stamp of
Puritan character; taking success for justice, egotism for greatness, cunning for wisdom, cupidity for enterprise, sedition for liberty, and cant for piety.
[Applause.] The
West do not complain merely that their interests are sacrificed by
New England capitalists for their aggrandizement but they detest the idea of Puritan polities, that sins should be reformed by the
State, and that the
State should unite its functions practically with the
Church, for the propagation of moral and religious dogmas.
For them objects the laws of economy and the dictation of public opinion, which ever look to the interest of sections and men, are disrecorded.
He who fails to observe these Laws understands little of the science of Government.
New England may be accounted smart in intellect, cunning in invention, and energetic in industry.
She may boast of her libraries, schools, churches, and press.
She may understand the science which subsidizes the fever, the pulley; the cylinder, and the wheel, rise may study, as the worm does, how to draw a thread line, and like the spider, how to make the won. She may understand the mechanism of matter, and may boast of an and a Jacquard in every factory, but such smartness may be unable to comprehend the machinery of a State.
It may bring — my, it has already brought — crash and confusion where better minds evolved beauty and harmmy [Applause]
It is not in the that
New England is smart in the sense of wisdom.
It is not smart to be informed on one side of the question.
One lived information is the blankest ignorance — man who reads the
Tribune exclusively crazy activity of mind.
[Laughter] no evidence of smartness that
New England should army against her the ideas of the the
Union.
She showed no smartness in knowing this war to begin, when she could have prevented it. She has shown none in her estimate of the formidable character of the relation.
She has shown none in her and her schemes of emancipation.
Is it smart to build factories and destroy the very sources of the cotton which runs them?
As its smart to over-tax, for her own benefit, a more powerful section, as she has the
West?
If she is not driven from the
Union she will be humiliated in it [Cheers] But it is neither wise nor just to impeach a whole people for the misdoings and errors of a rest, even when that part to dominant.
While, therefore, I analyze the elements of
New England society, and their relations to our position, I shall not confound that which is mischievous, in colonial times, the resentful bigotry of an Endicott was relieved by the amiable character of a Winthrop; as in later Daniel Webster [cheers,] stands like a granite rock repelling the wave of
New England . [Cheers] I would not confound Ruins Shoats,
Chief Justice Shaw,
Benjamin F. Thomas, and
Judge Curtis, and such illustrious men, [cheers,] with
Theodora Parker,
Wendell Phillips,
Gov. Andrews,
Charles Sumner, and the lesser spawn of Transcendentalism.
[Hisses] The one class have ever cultivated the graces of civil order; the other have been and are the Marplots of the
Republic.
I speak of that ruling element, which even before it reached our shores, while it was in exile in
Holland, while it ruled in early days at
Plymouth and at
Boston, and which has since been distributed all over the country, the same selfish, pharisaical, character.--
We find it in our politics to-day, as the Tudor found it three hundred years ago, ever meddling for harm; and yet seeking its own safety by concessions, but never conceding anything for the welfare of others, unless, thereby, it could help itself in larger measure.
[Laughter and cheers.] Even in the time of Elizabeth it compromised with its persecutors, by agreeing to the passage of a bill by Parliament which shielded the Presbyterians, but provided a punishment for the
separatists. Hopkins closes his history of the Purslane of that time by saying, with discriminating justice, that "we do not claim for them that they had well defined and correct ideas of civil liberty.
For example, the dispensing power of the sovereign — utterly in mockery of all legislation, and practically a canker at the root of civil liberty — seems to have been generally admitted by them." Just now, when it suits their object, they clamor for the proclamations and confiscations, which dispense with the
Constitution.
[Applause.]
If we are to take their own account of themselves, as, for instance, when garnished with the rhetoric of
Bancroft, one night inter that they deserved the eulogy of
Macaulay, and that every potty presbyter was the vicegerent of the
Most High, specially anointed to reproach mankind with its short-comings--[Laughter.] The truth is, that their history, as written by themselves, has been glossed with falsehood.
Investigation is fast rubbing off the lacquer, and the rotten framework of their ethics and politics is beginning to appear.
If they are permitted to write the annals of this present war the truth will never appear.
[Laughter.] But so momentous a conflict as this has awakened better minds; and in the history which posterity will read, the Puritans will play the part of intermeddling destructive, self-willed and intolerant beyond any characters yet known to history.
The grand key-note of the
Puritan is, that "slavery" was the cause of this war, and that as men and Christians we should exterminate it. I do not intend now to refute this fallacy.
Our past seventy years refute it. Because slavery was meddled with, and returned in violence what was given in wrath and malice, it does not follow that it was the cause of the violence.
The doctrine of the
French Socialist Proudhon, that property is robbery, and should be abolished; is a sample of the same fallacy.
What is known as Abolition is, in the moral cense, the cause of the strife.--[Cheers]
Abolition is the offspring of Puritanism.--Until Abolition arose the
Union was never seriously menaced, the
Constitution was never endangered.
Puritanism introduced the moral elements involved in slavery into politic, and thereby threw the
Church into the arena.
Our Christianity, therefore, became a wrangler about human institutions.
Churches were divided and pulpits desecrated.
A certain class in a certain section were sinners and were damned forever.
Speculative discussion about a higher law than the organic political law poisoned politics and began asperities of sections.
The first harangue of
George Thompson, in this country, under the an spices of the Fessenden of
Maine, and Garrisons of
Massachusetts, was predicated on the idea that slavery was again against God, and that no Christian people should tolerate it. I hold in my hand the letters and addresses by
George Thompson during his mission here.
In his first address, a Lowell, October 5, 1831, he laid down the dogmas which are now being worked out in disunion and blood.--He said: "The medium through which he contemplated the various tribes that peopled the earth was one which
blended all hues.--Toward sin in every form no mercy should be shown.
A war of extermination should be waged with the works of the devil.
Misguided patriotism spread the alarm, 'the
Union is in danger.' But whom should they obey?
He boldly answered, God, who required that men should cease to do evil." He demanded that the
Constitution should be changed. "What though the
Union was in danger! " said this interloper; "there is every disposition among the
British Abolitionists to extend to you their sympathy, their counsel, and their
contributions." We are now getting in over measure the sympathy, counsel, and contributions of these lovely kinsfolk — the
English Abolitionists.
[Cheer and laughter]
A Leaf from their history.
Before they left
England, King James said of them, we doubt not with some truth, that they were pests in the
Church and Commonwealth.
When the
Mayflower and the Speed-well were on the sea with their freight of Pilgrim, the same perversity among themselves occurred.
Their own historian,
Eliott, (p. 57,) says, "That these vessels contained the
Pilgrim wheat sifted from the three kingdoms; but" he says, "that it needed sifting once or twice more." [Laughter.] One of their leaders said:‘"Our voyage hither (from
Holland to Dartmouth.) hath born as full of crosses as ourselves of crookedness"’ [Laughter] Later, in 1621, he again said, what was no doubt true, "that they were yoked with some conditioned people, who will never do good, but corrupt and abuse others. "
Oliver, in his history, proves that the
Captain of the
Mayflower was bribed by the
Dutch, who had settlements in this vicinity, not to land the
Pilgrim in or near the
Hudson, where they intended to settle.
[Laughter, and a voice "that's true"]--If there are any praying Knickerbockers here, [cries of plenty," and laughter,] I hope that I may not be considered intrusive upon spiritual concerns, if I suggest that it is not too late, even yet, to give thanks for that pious fraud which led to this happy riddance [Great laughter.]
There is no doubt that, when exiled, as soon as they learned the language in
Holland, they began to wrangle with the
Dutch about their creed.
This will account for the anxiety about their presence in the
Island of Manhattan.
It is a mistake to suppose that the Pilgrims left
Holland on account of religious persecution.
The reason which they gave for leaving
Leyden was that the
Dutch would not observe the Sabbath, and the fear lest their children should grow up to be dissipated Dutchmen [Laughter.] But there were other reasons.
They anticipated poverty, and were greatly influenced, as is sometimes the case with their descend ants, by their worldly considerations--[Laughter.]
In the language of the time, their hopes of wealth mingled largely and freely with their hopes of Heaven.
[Laughter.] Adventure towards
New England, by the
Northern company, was not inspired by the yield of
gold and
silver, though visions of "mines which lay hid in the earth, " were not wanting.
But their treasures lay in the sea, and their divining red hold its hock and line.
[Laughter] They came here to serve God and catch fish.
[Laughter.] When the Pilgrims went to James for their charter, he asked: "What profits do you intend?" On being told "fishing," he replied, ironically, "So God have my soul, 'tis an honest trade, 'twas the applies own calling." [Laughter] It is a pity to spoil the poetry of
Mrs Hemans about the Pilgrims, by painting them as fishermen, who expected to find silver in the mouth of the fish they took; but so it is. We can say of them, with truth, that they "sacrificed to their not, and burned incense to their drag, because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous." Their descendants have not forgotten unto this day to urge that the
Government of the
Union should give them their fishing bounty.
It is one among the privileges enjoyed by
New England for her godly and apostolic mode of life.
[Laughter] When they catch a cod out comes a tax from a Western farmer!
But when we catch a catfish or a sucker out
West, we do not get any bounty.
[Laughter.]
A Couple of illustrations.
I propose to give two illustrations of these truths.
The first is in your midst.
Every Sabbath you have a sermon from
Dr. Cheever, [] demonstrating that our failures in battle are owing to the displeasure of God, because of the sin of slavery, [Cried of "Oh!"] He makes slavery the terrible crime of the world in his own fancy, and reduces Omnipotence to the task of punishing us by war for its existence.
He conveniently forgets that, there is another side to the battle, and that when we fail God sides, by his foolish logic, with slaveholders.
[Laughter]
Parallel with this logic, turn back to 1676, when
Randolph came to
New England from the parent Government, to find out the cause of the
Indian war. The answer of the
Government of
Massachusetts furnishes the commentary.
It officially declared that "these are the great and provoking evils" for which God hath given the barbarous heathen commission to rise against them.
For men wearing long hair and periwigs made of women's hair.
[Laughter] For women wearing borders of hair, and for cutting, curling, and laying out their hair, and disguising themselves by following strange fashions in their apparel.
[Laughter.] For profaneness in the people is not frequenting the meetings, and others going away before the blessing is propounded.--[Laughter] For suffering the Quakers to a well among them, and to set up their thresholds by God's thresholds contrary to their old laws and resolutions, with many such reasons."
Thus it will be seen that the original defects in the
Puritan pattern have been copied to this day. Like the Chinese artist, when told to copy a flic and costly piece of porcelain to which some accident had happened, he followed his instructions with such great skill and labor that he copied the crack which extended the whole length of the model.--[Laughter]
