Show THE constitution ideta with death and leiga kith hellit altmin low bal take off your hats we are going to talk about the constitution the other day william loyd gar rison died there was groat mourning all over this great republic thereat alie churches were draped in weeds and the preachers spoke grand funeral orations poets wrote tearful threnodies thren odies to the departed william loyd garrison j and the most eloquent statesmen pronounced touching eulogies A great man a truo patriot is dead was the burden of what was sung and said garrison had been a rattler in his day full of tho queerest notion an infidel dealer in social cyclones and political earthquakes lie was generally considered a lunatic called a revolutionist an impracticable theorist a firebrand an ape and the liko was simply an abolitionist nothing more while still a young mache under took to lecture in dear old Mass achus sells the cradle of liberty and was rotten eged nearly every time he attempted to speak lie then started paper to prop agate hie lunacies luna cies and a red hot one it was too swinging boldly from the masthead of his journalistic craft in plain unmistakable letters were these words the af the united slates is a Con venant with Deith slavery the woodchuck he was after was entrenched in th constitution whose outlying defenses were the bible the traditions of the american people and a boien state constitutions all the wealth of the republic all the churches all the institutions of learning everything and every interest whether civil religious ligi ous educational or commercial stood as breastworks to the constitution yet shielded and fortified a it was william lloyd garrison dared to fling this truth defiantly in the teeth of the world the constitution of the united states ie covenant death and a league with hell he never abated a jot or tittle of his tremendous indictment aad lived to ee his ide im bedded in that instrument when he died the erstwhile lunatic was crowned prophet and the mad revolutionist elevated to niche in the pantheon of americas political saints there well leave him judge taney was a man a good man as the world goes he was chief justice of the court of the united stacee of america pious patriotic conservative respectable eminently respectable very very wise he knew everything evey thing that can be known about dawg and constitution and codes ancient and modern but his pride and glory and the glory and pride of america wae his immense knowledge of the constitution of the united states he reverenced reveren ced that wonderful document and delved deep in every vein of learning that could throw or tend to throw light on its inspired propositions oh taney was a big gun perhaps the biggest piece of judicial ordnance that ever fired off a constitutional decision well a time came when his colossal brain was called upon to decide the constitutional status of nippers nip gers it became his duty officially to declare what a was and he did it thus a has no rights that a ehlt man bound to respect that was the constitution according to judge taney and judge taney was the only man in america who had the right the constitution tho judge died there much fuss made about it ills memory is cherished by few and execrated by many but we do not execrate his memory his decision waa honest just and in entire accordance with the terms of the constitution william lloyd garrison would have decided the same way did decide the same way for that matter ilia decision was the constitution of the united states is a covenant with death and a league with hell A little different to be sure but precisely the same in spirit as that used by chief justice tancy jimnak was a prim respectable pec table old gentleman A public functionary very respectable and he knew all about the constitution loved it end worshiped it with never flagging fervor became president of the united states of america in the regular way under the constitution and while he was discharging his duties under the constitution some ten or eleven states in the exercise reserved rights formally withdrew from the union jimmy was rather sorry to pee them do it buthe looked carefully through the constitution and to make sure that ho waa richt ho invited certain diee men men as wise almost a judge anney to help him read the constitution ution and they read and pondered ponde and looked over all the old and new dis on the constitution they could find an when they had got through jimmy buchanan the last president of the united states formulated their and hh researches in these memorable words the president ku no power umar ta a state and no reasonable man acquainted with the constitution dare affirm that buchanan and his advisers did not fairly interpret the constitution stepped down and out respectable learned conservative jimmy buchanan and up from the depths of the backwoods clear into the presidential chair leaped abe lincoln the rail splitter A rawboned raw boned grinning old buffer wa abe know much about the was not a bit respectable and not at ill learned but he loved hi country nd he loved humanity in hi akward wk ward gawky way he hd the bert of ahro tb in of fremante freman tb vigor and directness ness of a western pioneer and one morning long before be had become acquainted with tho geography of the white word came to him that the rebels had fired on sumter what did he do go mussing around the constitution not much but planting himself solidly on his patriotic impulses and kicking the constitution into the cellar ho called for seventy five thousand men to go down to dixieland and coerce states they went and hundreds of thousands more went nor returned they till every state south of mason and dixone line had been coerced and founded a nation in defiance of the constitution the constitution of the united states has been little beside a curse and a hindrance it is so to day much as it has been at any time since it wag framed it is the barrier now in the pathway of the nation it is in league with treason and ie the bulwark of secession to it the baffled brigadiers appeal and by it they swear but the stalwarts Stal warts do not care a fig for the constitution and will trample it under foot today to day as did lincoln and the patriot hosts from 61 to 65 we of today know what we need better than did the men of 76 and 98 wo thank the fathers for the rich heritage of wisdom bat we have DO special use for their ignorance we are wiser than they were for we have all their and more than a cent experience besides they had their revolution in 76 we had ours in 61 they founded confederacy we founded nation |