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Show 02 SF.COND DA y-:ITORNING SF.SSJON. And when that Truth its perfect work hath done, And rich with blessings o'er our land hath ~one-\ Vhen not a slave beneath his yoke shall p111e, From broad Potomac to the far Sabine: When unto angel-lips at last is given The s ilver trnmp of Jubilee in Heaven; Ami from Virginia's plains--Kentucky's shades, And through the dim Floridian everglades, Rises to meet that anrrel-trumpet's sound, The voice of millions 0 from their chains unbound-Then though this Hall be crumbling in decay, Its st;ong walls bl_endin~ with the common clay, Yet, round the nuns of Its s tre ngth shall stand The best and noblest of a ransomeU land-Pilgrims, like those who throng around the shrine Of Mecca-or of holy Palestine!- A prouder glory shall that ruin own Than that which lingers round the P arthenon . Here shall the ch<ld of after years be taught The work of Freedom which his fathers wroughtTold of the trials of the present hour, Our weary strife with prejudice and power,How the high errand quickened woman's soul, And touched her lip as with the living coalHow Freedom's martyrs kept their lofly faith True and unwavering, unto bonds and dcath,The pencil's art shall Rketch the ruined Hall, The Muses' garland crown its aged wall, And History's pen for afler times record Its consecration unto FREEDOM's Goo! LEwts C. GuNN, of Philadelphia, then addressed the audience on the "Right of Free Discussion," in an extemporaneous speech, which he has since written out. ADDRESS OF LEWIS C. G UNN. To a foreigner it may seem strange that in this boasted land of liberty it is necessary to speak on the right of free discussion. A~customed to he~r our vauntings of freedom of speech and of the press, of mmd and of conse~enc?, this is the last subject which he would expect to hear ~rgue~ at~ywhere m the United S tates, much less in the slate of }:lenn, and tn th1s Ci~Y of bro· therly love. But, strange as it may seem, the churches and publ1c halls of Philadelphia are closed against the advocates of human. nght~ ; and, I believe, there is not a building in this city, except the one Ill wh1c.h we ?re now <Jssembled, large enough to accommodate such a meeting as thiS, wluch could have been obtained for the advocacy even of that most valuable of all rights-the right of .free. disc~ssion. '~he fact ?an be no longer concealed, that in this l:md tlns nght 15 not enjoyed. fhere are two and a half millions of slaves who are never allowed to speak in their own behalf, or tell the world freely the story of their wrongs. There arc also hal~ a million of so called free people of color, who are permitted to speak wuh ADORES!:I Olo' LI-:WIS C. GUNN, 63 but little more liberty than the slaves. Nor is this all. Even those who stand up in behalf of the down-trodden colored man, however white their skins may be, arc slandered, persecuted, mobbed, hunted from city to city, imprisoned, and, as in the case of the lamented Lovejoy, put to death! It is unnecessary here to refer to Amos Dresser, who, for exercising the pri\' ilege of a freeman, and acting in behalf of freedom, was publicly whipped in the streets of Nashville. I need not speak of another devoted friend of the oppressed, whose face I see in this assembly, who, some years ago, was immured in a Baltimore prison, and has since been led like a criminal to a j ail iu Boston, for no other crime th<ln publishing what his conscience and his judgment told him was the truth. Nor need I give a detailed account of the many mobs which have disgraced our conn try within the lasl three or four years-mobs collected together anti in furiated, because some independent minds and warm hearts had undertaken to canvass the sublime merits of slavery and the dangera "of emancipation." You arc all familiar with the scenes in Congress during its last set:isions. You are all familiar with the tragedy at Alton. What, I ask, do these things prO\'e? Do they not clearly show that we do not enjoy the right of free discussion? We may speak without reserve, it is true, on the subject of banks, and on many other poli tical and moral questions; but when slavery is selected as the theme, when it is proposed to discuss the inalienability of human rights, then, forsooth, our lips must be locked and our thoughts imprisoned. Our right here is assailed, and it is a stab at the right to speak on any and every other subject. What do we mean by the right of free discussion? Is it merely the privilege of "saying what the prevailing voice of the brotherhood will allow ?'' This defin ition, I know, has been recently given by a popular minister in the enlightened city of Boston ;-aye, and the fact shows how corrupt we have become as a people, how we have suffered one of our dearest rights to be almost wrested from us, and have bowed ourselves down before the hal1ghty and tyrannical slaveholder. The right of free discussion is 11 the privilege to speak and write what the prevailing volce of the brotherhood ~vi.ll allow!" . I.ndeed! Th.en our boasted right is not a right, but only a pnv1lege-a pnv1lege dependmg on the 11 voice of the brotherhood," who one day may will for us to speak, and the next for us to be dumb,-or this week may command our silence, and the next crowd in throngs to give a lis~ening ear to ?u~ discussion~ .. Depending on circumstances, and y et a n ght? 'Vhy, Jt IS a contradJctwn in terms. If it is dependi~g on cir~umstances, then it <.loes not i.nl!erently belong to us-we ha,~e denved no n ght from our Creator. A pn\'llcge is a privilege, and not a nght. Now freedom of sp~ech.we l:IPU.rn as a pri\'ilege; we demand it as our own, and we shall cxerctsc 1t, too, 111 the face of all the mobs which may array ~hem sehes in tl~reatcning attit~de be~ore u~ . Our right to speak freely the d1ctates of our mmds and consCiences IS denved from our Creator and we llave .no. permission .to surrender it ourselves, nor has any othe; man the pernHSS!On to wrest 1~ from us. Thu~ you see that abridging our freedom of speech on the subJect of slavery, 1s tantamount to saying that free~om of speech 01~ all subjects is not our right, but that we must depend for 1t up~n "the vo1ce of the broth.erhood ;"-that voice determining on what snbJ.CCts \~C may speak , what k1nd of thoughts we may utter, and the language m wh1ch they must be clothed_. Here, then, on the question of slavery the battle must be fought. At th1s part of the citadel the first attack has been made; and here the true friends of the right must rally, and disperse ~he enemy, be~or~ they ha\'e forced a passage and taken the castle. For t~us reason al_one It 1s, that so mat~~~ s~nce Lovejoy's murder, have taken a dectdcd stand m favor of the abohtwmst$, although opposed to them in |