Speech of the Hon. William B. Reed, on the Presidential Question

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Excerpt from Speech of the Hon. William B. Reed, on the Presidential Question: Delivered Before the National Democratic Association, Philadelphia, September 4, 1860I am not, I think, overstating this. I have no disposition to misconstrue either what Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Seward, or Mr. Sumner, or any one else has said, but I ask any candid friend of either, to take the aggregate speech making of a fortnight ago at Boston and Springfield, - to take one as a gloss on the other, - Seward's Coke on Lincoln's Littleton, - and explain to me its other and truer meaning and if there be one, or if, as sometimes happens, but not often, with an expert rhetorician like Mr. Seward, or a rough, plain spoken man like Mr. Lincoln, there be no meaning at all m these phrases, I shall be most happy to admit I have done injustice.The sad conviction presses on me, that the animating spirit of the Re publican party, however individuals may honestly disclaim it, is anti slavery fanaticism, enthusiastic sentimentalism, founded on the false ethical principle that slavery, as it exists in this country is wron g, per se, and that under the obligation of the higher law, to which Mr. Seward has pledged Mr. Lincoln, there can be no covenant or constitution, which binds us to protect it. Take away from the Republican organization the anti-slavery element, the sentiment which sways New England and the extreme Northwest, and it would be the merest shell that ever dignified itself with the name of party. Keep within it that spirit, active, energetic, honest, if you please, for, most fanaticism, from the days of John of Leyden, is honest, and you have it, as it is - aterrible, dangerous, aggressive antagonist, in~whose grasp, such conventionalities as laws and constitutions, are~ crushed without a scruple.I am quite aware that this progress - this increasing indi¿erence to the obligation to conventional duty on this point - to which I have referred, is claimed to be a proof of the triumph of a great moral process or principle. I question much if the intelligence of our countrymen is yet sublimated to this point, mine certainly is not, I still revere the authority of those who have gone before me, I still swear by the Constitution, as it is judicially construed, and I dread that social and political revolution, now so imminent, which is to inaugurate the new school of political obedience to a higher law than the Constitution, to which Mr. Seward has pledged Mr. Lincoln and his administration.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.