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![handle is hein.slavery/sphtcoh0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
SPEECH
OF
niON.
THOMAS CORWIN,
OF OHIO,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
JANUARY 23 AND 24, 1860.
[After some opening remarks on the importance of elect-
ing a Speaker, Mr. CORWIN proceeded as follows:
The eloquent gentleman from Mississippi [Mr.
BARKSDALE] is very much afraid of the establish-
ment, by the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr.
BuRLINGAEf,] of an anti-slavery Bible. Sir, that
Bible is a book witho~t which, in my judgment,
no society can very well exist and hope to ad-
vance in morals or otherwise. And yet I warn
gentlemen, North and South, that it is a book
which it will not do for us to look to alone to
guide us in the organization of political society
of the present day. We find, in the historical
parts of that book, brief sketches of the laws,
usages, and doings, of the people of the Old
World, which, if not read and pondered more
carefully than such as we are apt to do, may
lead to great errors in legislation in this age and
country. We find there enacted very much such
scenes, thousands and thousands of years ago,
as we have been endeavoring to enact in this
little sphere of ours-about a tenth part, I s:'p-
pose, of this habitable globe-which, of itself,
to the mind of Isaac Newton, or Herschell, or
La Place, if they had not been born and lived
here, would seem to be a very insignificant por-
tion of the universe. And yet, one would sup-
pose, from the debates we have had here, that
we really believed the happiness of all worlds,
and certainly of untold generations, depended
upon the election of A or B, to stand up there
in that chair, like a woodpecker tapping a hol-
low beach tree. [Great laughter.] That tap-
ping, sir, has been to us, so far, the only exhibi-
tion of power or influence belonging to that
office, about which we have been in angry con-
test for the last six weeks. We become so ac.
customed to the sound, that we do not think we
are in order unless we hear that tapping. We
do not think we are in Congress unless. some-
body is calling us to order, accompanied, too, by
that continuous, ever-recurring tapping.
But, sir, I was referring to the allusion made
by the gentleman from Mississippi to the gentle.
man from Massachusetts, and an anti-slavery
Bible? How is this, sir? One wants an anti-
slavery Bible, and he is sure he has it in our
present version. Another wants a pro-slavery
Bible, and he is equally certain he has it in the
same sacred book. Let each be content with his
belief, and not interfere here with that of his
brother; let us not dissolve the Union upon con-
flicting constructions of the Bible. I think it is
certain that those patriarchs held slaves, and
,that they transmitted them to their children; but
they did not make slaves of their own people;
and some other things are very certain. This fu-
gitive slave law that we hear so much about. I
will not pretend to go into particulars, but I
think it will appear that it, or a rule something
like it, had its constructions and repeals in the
Bible time.
I think that when the bondwoman Hagar left
Abraham, with her master's consent, there be-
ing some disturbance in his domestic relations,
[much laughter,] the boy Ishmael, not being the
child of promise, and being in the habit of ma-
king impertinent remarks about the conduct of
family affairs, [laughter,] was sent off with his
mother into the wilderness, with a loaf of bread
and a bottle of water. We are told that Hagar,
being exhausted and famished by hunger, laid
NoTE.-On the 23d and 24th days of January last, Mr. CoRwIN addressed the House at great
length in vindication of the doctrines of the Republican party. A pamphlet edition of thirty-two
pages of this speech was published; but, as its size and cost prevented its general circulation,
the present edition, comprising the material portions of that pamphlet, has been published, to
Dbriate the objection as to size and cost made to the first edition.
Reproduced with permission from the University of Illinois at Chicago](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/sphtcoh0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)