THE PROGRESS OF TYRANY

A SPEECH BY JOHN A. MARTIN

DECEMBER 10,1856

Transcribed by Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.

July 15, 2004

[There is a remarkable document written by a seventeen and a half year-old John

Alexander Martin in the collections of the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.' It
is a speech that he wrote for the "Franklin Literary Institute" of his home, Brownsville,
Pennsylvania, delivered December 10, 1856. His hand is clear, and the manuscript has
few strikeouts and revisions. The Society has published the speech on-line, but the
transcription below from the manuscript has minor differences from that text, as it will
follow the spelling, punctuation and grammatical peculiarities of the original.

[In this speech, Martin is well organized, focused and eloquent, far beyond what one
would expect of a teenager with a limited formal education other than that which he
"picked up" by serving as a compositor on a newspaper and reading. The speech is
entitled, "The Progress of Tyranny," and traces the history of America's opposition to
tyranny, especially that of slavery. After an introduction, he announces his subject and
reviews the history of the struggle in three epochs before turning to the issues in his
contemporary age. Martin observes that these founders of our nation merely tolerated the
institution for the sake of the stability of the government, but, "looked forward to the day
when it should be abolished." When writing the Constitution, they refused even to
mention the word "slave." After this came a time of indifference.

[Martin spends most of his efforts of his speech in interpreting his present "age of
extension," where, for the first time, slavery is being aggressively defended and expanded
into new territories. He personifies "Slavery" as a tyrannical and devious force,
demanding that the Missouri Territory be brought into the nation as a slave state. Some
protested, but they were ineffectual. Pennsylvania, Martin's birth state, complained, but
was ignored. Intimidated by the South's threats of dissolution of the nation, the North
gave way, obtaining only that slavery would be banned from north of the 36° 30' latitude.
With this, In a striking image, Martin asserts that, "the tiger had tasted blood and was
ravenous for more," and there was little protest even when Texas is added as a slave state.
With the war with Mexico, California's gold was needed to finance it. The abundance of
Northern emigrants kept that state free, but the victory over Mexico brought new
territories, and Slavery worked to insert itself into these areas as well. A more despotic
"Fugitive Slave Law" was also enacted, requiring that any black person, whether escaped
or long having been free, was to be returned to the South and bondage. Having thought it

1
John A. Martin, "The Progress of Tyranny." This document has been made available by Mr. Matt Veatch
of the Kansas State Historical Society, "Territorial Kansas Online" (Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State
Historical Society, June, 2004).
had appeased the South once more, a lull seemed to have set in the North. Again, Martin
declares, "...the aggressive spirit of Slavery was not yet Satisfied." With the prospect that
the Kansas and Nebraska Territories would be admitted into the Union as free states,
lying north of the 36° 30' latitude, the slave holders see an opportunity to shift the
balance of free and slave states in the Congress in their favor. The seventeen year-old
Martin is pessimistic, yet, ultimately, he places his hope on the American people, and is
confident that, through them, "light is breaking through the somber clouds, and shedding
a sunshine of hope upon a bleeding land." -Ernst F. Tonsing]

Read before the "Franklin Literary Institute," of Brownsville, Dec. 10 , 1856.

The Progress of Tyrany.

Having been appointed Essayist for this evening, we hardly knew on what to write. So
many subjects presented themselves to our mind, each interesting in itself, and involving
great questions, that we were for some time unable to fix our attention upon one, and
exclude the others. We thought of writing on the last crowing infamy of the present
corrupt and condemned administration, the "Message," charging, as it does, the majority
of the people of eleven of the greatest States of the confederacy, with "want of fidelity to
the Constitution and the Union," and asserting, with unwarrantable authority, that the
"Missouri Compromise," which the Supreme Court of the U. S., the only body possessing
the power, had declared Constitutional, "to be obsolete, and null for unconstitutionality.
Again, we contemplated writing on the past Campaign and its consequences, or the
Missouri Compromise, and a variety of other subjects, but we at last concluded to pass
them all by for the present, and chose for our subject, "The Progress of Tyrany [sic]."

In viewing this subject, we have been mournfully impressed with the changes
which have taken place during the last century—changes which, from their very nature,
cannot proceed much further without producing the most direful results; perhaps
resulting in the downfall of this government, or what is worse, the prostration of its most
cherished principles. The soundings show that we are fast approaching the fatal spot, and
the darkness of a troubled night is coming upon us. In examining the sentiments which
the people of this Country have entertained, at different periods, we find that our past
history may be divided into three different ages. The first is "Opposition to Tyrany." In
this age, all the great men of the day united in condemning it on moral, political, and
religious grounds. Jay, Franklin, Adams, Morris and Hamilton, of the North, were joined
by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and Pickney, of the South in reprobating it as
an evil—unhappily entailed upon them, and so entwined with the whole social structure,
as to render it apparently most difficult of removal—yet in all its aspects an evil which
they deplored in language as strong as any writer of the present day. As Mr. Jefferson
said, "The whole commerce between master and Slave is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one hand, and degrading
submissions on the other." "And," continued he, "with what execration should the
Statesman be loaded, who, permitted one-half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights
of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies; destroying the morals
of the one, and the love of country of the other." Though Slavery was tolerated where it
existed, for the sake of general government, yet they looked forward to the day when it
should be abolished. Thus, they refused to have inscribed upon the Constitution, the
word "slave," though adapted as a temporary enclosure of Slavery, and constructed it as
avowedly for the ultimate abode of Liberty. In the North they saw State after State,
through [sic] off the shackles of this Institution, and stand forth in the everlasting beauties
of freedom, wishing to circumscribe it in the Territories, they united in enclosing them
with an eternal barrier against Slavery. This is shown in the proceedings of the Congress
of that period, and in the passage of the Ordinance of 1787. In March, 1784, Congress
voted to accept accession of lands, subsequently known as the N. W. Territory, from the
state of Va. At the same time Mr. Jefferson, in behalf of a committee, consisting of
himself, Mr. Chase, of Md., and Mr. Howell, of R. I., reported a plan for this government
of all territories ceded, or to be ceded by individual states to the U. S. This plan provided
that "after the year 1800, neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in any of
said States except for punishment of Crime." Territories were here spoken of as states,
because it was contemplated to creat [sic] them into States. This provision failed to
receive majority of the 13 States, though 16 delegates voted for and 7 against. This plan
gave rise to the celebrated ordinance of 1787, expressly "prohibiting Slavery or
involuntary servitude, except for Crime forever, throughout the whole Territory then
belonging to the U. S. which received the vote of every State in the Convention except
one. Congress ratified this Ordinance, and it received the signature of Washington. Thus
you see that the founders of the Republic, in all their acts, strove to circumscribe the
limits of Slavery, and extend the area of Freedom, and they sank to their graves with the
hope that the land they had made free would soon through [sic] off the shackles of
Slavery, and not be polluted by the footsteps of a Slave. This was the age of justice, of
truth, ofright,where men had an earnest faith in the principles of the Dec. of Ind."2

There followed the age of indifference. The love of Freedom, which burned in
the breasts of the men of the Revolution, was sensibly abated. Slavery, growing more
productive, man [sic] began to calculate its value. The priceless principles of Liberty,
would not, except in the scale of unselfish minds, weigh against the wrong which was
"plated with gold." It was at this time that Henry Clay, moved by the noble impulses of
his generous heart, sought, with eloquence more than human, to persuade the people of
Ky. to emancipate their Slaves. But the cool, calculating spirit of the times forbade it,
though thousands of hearts responded to the call. But while the South claimed non-
interference with Slavery, and the North acquiessed [sic], the Slaveholders themselves
had not come to defend Slavery either as a good or a righteous Institution, nor sought to
extend it, nor dreamed of rendering it co-equal with Freedom; nor denied the power of
Congress to prohibit its ingress upon the national Territories. This was the age of
conservatism, or indifference, and had this state of affairs continued long, Slavery would
rapidly have wasted itself away and died.

Declaration of Independence.
 But it was followed by the present age of extension, when Slavery for the first
time, began to exhibit an aggressive character, that has been rapidly growing more bold
and reckless. It commenced by demanding the Missouri territory to be admitted as a
Slave State. Then the slumbering North awoke, surprised, grieved, and indignant that the
system of human bondage was demanding to break over bounds where it was merely
allowed to exist by those who framed the Constitution. Our own state, with united voice,
issued a legislative protest against the measure." But, intimidated by the threats of
dissolution the North, through a portion of its representatives, gave way, after stipulating
with the south as a compensation for the surrender of Mo. as a Slave State, that all other
territory lying North of the line of 36° 30' should be forever free. Then Slavery seemed
to be satisfied; the fears of the North subsided, and the tempest seemed to have ceased.
But the tiger had tasted blood and was ravenous for more. The vast Southwest territory
was there, and Slavery thirsted for it. The North offered but a feeble resistance, and the
vast slaveholding State of Texas was added to the Union. The war with Mexico
followed, and millions of the treasure of the North were expended to pay the expenses of
this war. The discovery of gold in California, and the rush of Northern emigrants to that
State, kept Cal. free. But all our Mexican territory was left open to Slavery, and added to
this came the re-enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, armed with more stringent
provisions than before. After this, there was again a lull of the tempest. But the
aggressive spirit of Slavery was not yet Satisfied. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska
were to be organized, and they were North of the Compromise line. But Slavery,
undaunted, here took another step, unparalleled for audacity and boldness, and trampling
under foot all justice and plighted faith, brought a traitor to his soil, and under the
miserable guise of "Squatter Sovereignty," repealed the Mo. [Missouri] Compact, and
opened to itself, those fair and boundless territories, the possession of which will give
Slavery undisputed control of the government.4

But its crowning act of villainy is yet to be told, When they repealed the Mo..
Compromise, they professed to leave the people free to regulate their own domestic
institutions. The people of the North went into Kansas, supposing they could there find a
home. But slavery was watchful. It saw that the North could spare twice as many
emigrants as the South, and it resolved to stop them. They blocked up the grand highway
to Kansas against the ingress of freemen, and when the peaceable citizens of Kansas,
relying on the promises of the Administration, that they should settle their own
institutions, held an election, armed villains from Mo. came over, took possession of the
ballot boxes, drove the judges from the polls, and deliberately shot down anyone who
dared maintain his rights. Having thus carried the election their own way, they are
backed by the whole power of the Federal government, and their acts either approved of,
or let pass unnoticed. And when a Senator of the U. S., a polished orator and a scholar,

' Pennsylvania.
4
Martin is referring to the "Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas," the so-called
"Kansas-Nebraska" Act of 1854, which stipulates in Section 28: "And be it further enacted, That the
provisions of the act entitled 'An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from, the
service of their masters," approved February twelfth, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the
provisions of the act entitled "An act to amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act,' approved
September eighteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same are hereby, declared to extend to and be
in full force within the limits of the said Territory of Kansas."
one whose heart burned with indignation to see these wrongs perpetuated upon an
unoffending people, dared to proclaim, in eloquence which the fire-eaters knew they
could not answer, these facts from his seat in the U. S. Senate, and enter the protest of his
State against such infamy, he is stricken down by the hand of an assassin, who had not
even magnanimity enough to approach him before his face, and this coward, after having
performed this gallant exploit; is supported by the whole power of the Black Democracy
in Congress.

Its chief triumph, however, is in the late Election. Bringing forth a candidate
pledged to its interests, who, at the very outset, transmogrifies himself into a platform to
extend Slavery, no means were too vile, no lies to base for it to resort to, to carry its ends.
They ridiculed "bleeding Kansas," declared that no outrages had ever been committed in
that Territory, or if they had, they were committed by Free State men—affirmed that the
North was aggressive and the South always submissive—that the North had all the
territory, and the South none—that if the North did not yield to their demands they would
dissolve the Union—hired men to divide the North upon two candidates, while they were
united on one—squandered the money of the government by millions—praised the
Americans, whom, but a few months before they had denounced as "midnight assassins,"
"dark lantern conspirators," "traitors," and every other vile epithet they could invent, as
Union lovers, conservatives, and honest men—denounced the Republicans as
abolitionists, disunionists, traitors, infidels, and free-lovers, and by these vile means they
ran their Candidate in, buy a minority of over 2,000,000 votes.

These are its outward gains thus far. But it has wrought another change, in having
conquered the long cherished principle of the Nation, that Slavery is Sectional, Freedom
national. The time honored policy of our fathers, of the founders of the Republic, are
abandoned at the dictation of the South. The immortal principles they proclaimed, are
turned into ridicule, and the foundation of truth of Freedom and Self government, the
Declaration of Independence, is termed by one Northern traitor, "a compendium of high-
sounding abstractions and glittering generalities," and by a Southern disunionist [sic], "a
self-evident lie." Liberty, once deemed a more precious treasure than life, is now scouted
at, as the delusion of a fanatical brain, and spit upon and derided by tyranny. The party
who profess to be the followers of Jefferson, whose hand traced the Dec. and the
Ordinance of 1787, now follow the wild principles of the Carolina nullifier, who
"regarded Slavery as the most safe basis for free institutions in the world. ["]

And where will the march of tyrany [sic] end. Already it threatens to possess all
our National territories; to annex Cuba, Central America, and Lower California; and a
governor of one of the Southern States, has, within two weeks back, disgraced his high
official position, and honor of the nation, by transmitting to the Legislature, a Message
advocating the re-opening of the Slave Trade. And why cannot it du all- this? It has only
to march forward a few steps further in its present course, and all is done. It has only to
try it, and if the North object, it has only to raise the cry of Disunion, that scare-crow
which has been its only resort for years, and it can find addle-pated [sic] fools enough in
the North, to get down on their knees, and beg them not to do it, resign every principle;
yield to every demand; pay all their expenses; give them all the offices; only remain in
the Union. The blatant, babling [sic], senseless fools, they have not yet learned that the
South has sense enough to know the hand that gives them their food, pays their postage,
preserves them from attack from abroad and servile insurrection at home, and keeps their
"first families" from starvation, by giving them the plunder of public office.

And, yet, thanks to an .enlightened community, a light is breaking through the

somber clouds, and shedding a sunshine of hope upon a bleeding land. The indications
are on every side that there is wisdom in the people to discern the danger, and virtue to
oppose and arrest its progress. And when that day shall come, when liberty shall once
more sit upon her throne, and virtue shall once more guide our nation, fearful will be the
reckoning. Thousands of patriotic men are coming to the rescue. There is wisdom and
patriotism in the hearts of the American people, and this hour of trial will prove it as fire
tries the gold, and the Austerlity [sic] of the success of the Slave power will be lost in its
Waterloo of defeat while we sound again the bugles.