The Tipton Advertiser

Freedom's Grand Opportunity-Speech of
Richard Busteed,
Richard Busteed, Esq., the known pol-
itician and corporation attorney of New
York, made a glowing speech at the late
war meeting in that city, a few days
since, from which the following is an ex-
tract:
We meet to inflame zeal, to inspire
loyalty, and to declare to our president
and his cabinet that the city of New
York-the great commercial metropolis
of this country-favors the suppression
of this most wicked rebellion, by the
prompt, free, fearless use of every and
any means necessary to crush it out at
once and forever. [Great cheering.]
What these means are, the executive is
charged with deciding; but, as he has
recently, in a well considered letter, de-
clared his readiness to hear suggestions,
and give to them all proper considera-
tion, I claim the right and embrace this
occasion to say that it is my deliberate
conviction that the cause of this rebellion is Slavery, and the cause and effect must
perish or survive in force together.…
["Good," "good."] For one I sincerely
believe, if Slavery lives the republic dies.
[That is the talk.] And I deny that
this government struck at and attempted
to be destroyed by the slave power,
should do anything to preserve slavery
as a stock in trade for a future rebellion.
God has decreed that their sin shall perish with them. This is freedom's grand
opportunity, and no man, not himself at
heart tyrannic, dishonest and cruel, but
will rejoice that the republic of America
is ere long to be disenthralled by the
genius of universal emancipation. All
hail the day. [Great cheering.] In this
connection, I have a word to say to men
who, like myself, of Irish birth have
sought and found a home in the United
States of America. It is supposed by
some of my countrymen, and they have
been taught to think so by bad designing men of the class known as politicians.
that, if the emancipation of the black
race should be one of the results forced
upon us by the Southern slaveholders, an
exodus of that race to the Northern
States would immediately follow, and a
new and distasteful element of rivalry in
labor be produced here, to the disadvantage of the white working man. Now,
this is simply absurd. No such consequence would or could follow from the
freedom of the blacks. Residence is not
a matter of mere choice. It is controlled
by great natural and philosophical laws
to the acceptance of which all men are
held by an imperious necessity.
Which of us could, for example, live
in the heart of Ethiopia although our
revenue should be a million times what
it is in the State of New York? So, the
swarthy child of the torrid zones cannot
live amid the snows of Northern lati-
tudes. He never can enter their fields
of labor as a competitor. The country is
in imminent peril. Traitors in arms threaten and assault the people and their rulers; citizens are being ruthlessly slain;
homes and hearts are made desolate; constitutional obligation and compact are
whistled down the winds and the sacred
name of revolution perverted to the
abominable uses of treason and rebellion.
This is not the time to discuss how far
the government will be justified by the
Constitution, or previously existing laws
in using this, that or the other as a
means of re-establishing the national
power. Salus populi suprema est lex -
Self preservation is the first law of nature. Nor is this the time to regard the condition of the country from any political
stand point. In this hour party must be
forgotten. There is a great fight between
democracy and aristocracy.['That's true,']
between the privileges of the few and
the rights of the multitude, between
caste and republican equality, and he is
the genuine democrat who loves liberty
more than slavery. The democracy that
will not endure this test is spurious. My
own position is easily declared. I was a
Democrat. I am a loyal lover of my
country, whose free institutions I do not
care to outlive. [Bravo!] I will be
what her necessities, the convictions of
my intelligence, and the dictates of my
conscience make me. If this be treason
to party, party can make the most of it
["Good, good," and applause]
The President must and will be
sustained in his efforts to maintain the
Union. Those who are unwilling to support him now, prove thereby that they
are not and never were truly loyal. Those
who love slavery more than the Union,
never were very earnest in their opposition to disunion. Liberty, the genius
of the Union, calls on her followers to
assert her claims to supremacy, and those
who love slaveholding associations and
partizan prejudices more than her interests can not be her disciples. Ye cannot
serve Slavery and the Union. Choose
ye whom ye will serve.