Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-05-03

teach and to illustrate, for the benefit Of markind,
n higher and better civilization than they have
hitherto known2 If the Congress of the United
States shall persist In this attempt, then they shall
at least allow me to predict its results, Either
you will not establish African Slavery in Kansas,
or you will DO it at the cost Of the sacrifice of the
the existing liberties Of tho American people.
Even 1t slavery were, what it Is not, a boon to the
pcopfecf Kansas, they would reject it if enforced
upot their acceptance by Federal guns. The at
teri pit is in conflict with all the tendencies of the
age. African slavery has, for the last fifty years,
been giving way, as we'll in this country as in the
islands aud on the main land throughout this hem
fsphorc. The political power and prestige of
slavery in the United States are passing away.
The slave States practically governed the Union
directly for fifty years. They govern it now, only
indirectly, through the agency Of Northern hands,
temporarily enlisted in their support. So much,
ewing to the decline Of their power, they have al
ready conceded to the free States. The next step,
II they presist in their present course, will be the
resumption and exercise by the free States OF the
control of the government, without such conces-
sions MS they have hitherto made to obtain it.
Throughout a period of nearly twenty years, the
defenders of slavery screened il from discussion in
the national councils. Now, they practically con.
fess to the necessity for defending it here, by ini-
tiating Discussion themselves. They have at once
thrown away their most successful weapon, com.
promise, and worn out that one which was next in
effectiveness, threats of secession from the Union.
1t is under such improritious circumstances that
they begin the new experiment of extending slave
ry into free territory by force, the armed power Of
the Federal Government. You will need many
votes from free States in the House of Itepresen-
tatives, ard even some votes from those States in
this House, to send Hn army with II retinue of
slaves in its train into Kansas. Have you counted
up your votes in the two Houses? Have you cal
culated how long those who shall cast such votes
will retain their places in the National Lesisld-
ture
But I will grant, for tn, sake Of the argument,
that with Federal battaliohs you can carry slavery
into Kansas, and maintain it there. Are you quite
confident that tlfis republican form of government
can then be upheld and preserved? You will then
Yourselves have introduced the Trojan horse. No
republican government ever has endured, with
standing armies maintained in its bosom to en-
force submission to its laws. A people who have
once learned to relinquish their rights, under com
pulsion, will not be long * forgetting that they
over had any. In extending slavery into Kansas,
therefore, by arms, you will subyert the liberties Of
the people.
Senators Of the free States, 1 appeal to you.
Believe We the prophets? l know you do. You
know, then, that Slavery neither works mines and
'quarries, nor Pounds cities, nor builds ships, nor
1evies armies, nor mans navies. Why, then, will
you insist on closing up this new Territory of Kan
sas against all enriching streams of immigration,
While you pour into 1T the turbid and poisonous
waters of African Slavery? Which one of you all,
whether of Connecticut, or of Pennsylvania, or Of
gllinois, or Of Michigan, would consent thus to ex-
~tinguish the chief light of civilization within the
State in which your own fortunes are cast, and IN
which your own posterity are to live? Why will
you pursue n policy SC uukihd, so ungenerous, and
so unjust, towards tho helpless, dcfenseless strug-
Cling Territory Of Kansas, inhabited as 1t is by
your own brethren, depending on you for protec-
ton and safety Will Slavery in Kansas add to
the wealth or power of your own States, or to the
wealth, power or glory of the Republic ? You
1-oar, .hot - ILL l,n,;pteh II Ac tlago Won,
tess a desire to end this national debate about
slavery, which has become, for you, intolerable. is
1t not time to relinquish that hope? You have
exhausted the virtue, for that purpose, that resided
in compacts and platforms, in the suppression Of
the right of petition and in arbitrary parliament
airy laws, in abnegation Of Federal authority
over the subject of Slavery within the National
Territories. Will you even then end the debate,
by binding Kansas with chains, for the safety of
Slavery in Missouri? Even then you must give
over Utah to Slavery, to make it secure and per-
rnanent in Kansas; and you must give over Oregon
and Washington 10 both Poiygany and Slavery, so
ms to guaranty equally the one and the other of
those peculiar domestic institutions in Utah and
30 you must go Cd, sacrificing on the shrine OF
peace Territory after Territory, until the prevail
ing nationality of freedom and of virtue shall be
lost, and the vicious anomalies, which you have
hitherto vainly hoped Almighty Wisdom would re-
move from among you without your own concur
renee, shall become the controlling elements IN the
Republic. He who found q river i'll his path, and
sat down to wait for the food to pass away, was
hot gore unwise than he who expects the agita-
lion Of Slavery to cease while the love Of Freedom
animates the bosoms of mankind.
Yhe solemnity of the occasion draws over our
heads the cloud of disunion, which always arises
Whenever the subject Of Slavery is %agitated. Still
the debate goes on, moro ardently, earnestly, and
angrily, than ever before. 1t employs now not
merely logic, reproaoh, menace, retort, and de-
fance, but sabres, rifles, and cannon. Do you look
through this ~incipient war quite to the end, and
see there peace, quiet and harmony, on tho subject
of Slavery? If SO, pray enlighien me, and show
ye how lon , the wayis which leads to that repose.
She free States are loyal, and they always will re-
nsain so. Their foothold on this Continent is firm
and sure. Their ability to maintain themselves,
tuaideo, Under the present Constitution, is estab-
lished. The Save States also have been loyal
hitherto, and ! hope and trust they ever may re-
main so. But if disenion could ever come, it would
come in the form ola secession of the siaveholding
States; and it wouldcome then when the slavehold-
ing power, which is already firmly established on
the Gulf Of Mexico, and extends y thousand miles
northward along both banks Of the Mississippi,
should have fixed its graphing irons upon the
fountains of the Missouri and the slopes of the
Rocky Mountains. Their that power would either
be intolerably supreme in this Republic, or IT
weeld strike for independence or exclusive domi
nation. Then the free States and slaves States Vt
the Atlantic, divided and warning with each other,
would disgust the free States OF the Pacific, and
they would have abcrdant cause and justification
for Withdrawing from & Union productive no
longer of peace, safety and liberty 10 themselves,
and no longer holding up the cherished hores Of
mankind.
Mr.. President, the Continental Congress Of
1877, on ~resigning the trust, which it had dis
charged with signal fidelity into the hands of the au.
thorities elected under the New Constitution, ard in
taking leave of their constituents, addressed to the
people of the United States this memorable in
junction "Let it never be forgotten that the cause
of the United States has always been the cause OF
human nature Let us recall that precious mont
tion-let US examine the ways which we have
pursued hitherto under tho light thrown upon
them by that instruction.. Ne shall find in doing
so that we have forgotten moral right in the pur-
suit of material greatness, and we shall cease
hcneeforth from practising upon ourselves the
miserable delusion that we can safely extend en-