Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; delivered during the summer of 1858. by Jefferson Davis
page 88 of 126 (69%)
page 88 of 126 (69%)
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I are equal; we are joint owners. Each of us has the right to go into
those Territories, with whatever property is recognized by the Constitution of the United States. [Applause.] Congress has no power to limit or abridge that right. But the inhabitants of a Territory when as a people they come to form a State government, _when they possess the power and jurisdiction which belongs to the people of New York, or any other State, have the right to decide that question, and no power upon earth has the right to decide it before that time._ [Applause.] [At this point the Young Men's Democratic National Club, with banners and transparencies, entered the garden, and were received with enthusiastic cheers.] The dull remarks, my friends, which I was in the course of making to you, have been interrupted by a beautiful episode, which I am sure will more than exceed the whole value of the poem, if I may thus characterize my dull speech. And I am glad that foremost among all the transparencies and banners, comes this flag which speaks of the "Young Men's Democratic National Club."--[Three cheers for Davis.] It is on the young men we must rely. I have found that in every severe political struggle, where the contest on the one side was for principle, and on the other for spoils, it has been the gray-haired father and the boy with the peach bloom upon his cheek upon whom principles had to rely for support. My own generation--and I regret to say it--seems too deeply steeped in the trickery of politics to be able to rise above the influence of personal and political gain into the pure field of patriotism. And I am therefore glad to see the "Young Men's Democratic National Club" leading this procession. |
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