Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-05-21
THIRTY-FoURTH CONGRESS.



on the Central American question.
Mr.. Sumner then commenced his promised
sreech on Kanzas. He said:
"You are now called on to redress great
transgression, in which is involved, not only
the liberty of distant territory, but the peace
of the whole country. Against kanzas
crime has been committed, without parallel
in the records of the past-worse than any
thing done by Verres against Sicily. Are you
against sacrilege ?-I pres ent it for yorr exc
Grafton. Are you against robbery al hold it
up to your scorn. Are you for the protection
Of American citizens FL show you how their
dearest rights have been cloven down, while
tyrannical usurpation has installed tself on
their very necks. The wickedness which
expose is immeasurably aggravated by the
motive which prompted it. For the sake of
political power has force been openly employ
ed IN compelling Kanzas to the pollution of
slavery. There is the simple fact, which you
may vainly attempt to deny, but which in it
self presents wickeaness that makes other
public crimes seem like pull virtues. This
crime hazards civil war. Already the muster
has begun. Even now, while l speak, the
fury of the propagandists of slavery and the
calm determination OF their opponents are
diffused from the distant territory, and the
whole country foreshadows a strife, which,
unless happily averted by the iumph of free
dom. will become war-fraticidal, paIrjcidal
WARMTH an accumulated wckedness be-
yond the wickedness of any war in human
annals. Such is the crime which you are to
judge; and the criminal is the Slave Power
of the Republic. Justice to Kanzas can only
be secured by the prostration of this influence
for this is The power behind, greater than
any President, which succors and sustains
the crime.
1 have divided my subject under three heads:
The crime against Kanzas, the apologies for
the crime, and the true remedy. But before
entering upon the argument, must say some
thing in response to what has fallen from
Senators who have raised themselves to emf
nence upon this floor in championship Of hu-
man wrongs. l mean the Senator from South
Carolina, (Mr. Butler,) and the Senator from
Illinois, (Mr. Douglass who, though unlike
as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, yet. like
this couple, rally forth together in the same
cause. The Senator from South Carolina be-
lieves himself chivalrous knight, with SEN
timents of honor and courage. He has chosen
mistress, who, though ugly to others, is al
ways lovely to him, though polluted in the
sight of the world is chaste in his sight. l
mean the harlot, Slavery. For her his tongue
is always profuse in words. Let her be i'm
peached in character, or any proposition made
| to shut her out from the extension of her
wantonness, and no extravaganza of manner
| or hardihood of assertion is then, too great for
this Senator. If Slavery cannot have full
| power in the National Territories power to
compel fellow men to unpaid toll, to separate
| husband and wife, to sell little children at the
auction block--then, Sir, this chivalrc Sena-
tor will conduct the State of South Carolina
out of the Union. Heroic Knight! Exalted
Senator A second Moses come for second
exodus This Senator calls the opponents OF
slave extension " sectional" and =" fanatical.'
The men who strive to bring back the Gov
eminent to its original policy, when Freedom,
not Slavery, was National, he arraigns as
sectional" l affirm that the Republican
! Purity of the Union is in no Just sense section
| al but more than any other party National,
and, that it goes forth to dislodge from the
| high places of the Government, the tyranni cal
sectionalism of which the Senator from South
| Carolina is one of the maddest zealots. AS
| to fanaticisIn, will not deny that there are
| persons among us loving liberty too well for
| their personal goodtn a selfish generation In
eainGSo them fanatic. goa Iff8H
| day down to this hour; upon the great Iri :
Dunes OF human rights, by whom lille, liberty
and happiness on earth have been secured
AS the Senator from South Carolina is the
Don Quixote, the Senator from Illinois is the
squire of Slavery, ready to do all its humiliat.
ing offices. The Senator copies the British
officer, who, with boastful swagger, said that
with the hilt of his sword he would cram
the stamps down the Threats of the American
people. The Senator dreams that he can sub.
due the North How little that Senator knows
himself of the cause which he persecutes i
He is but a mortal man; against him is an
rto1 10 a..
Wrestles with the infinite, and must fall
Against him are stronger battaions than any
marshaed by mortal arn-the inborn ineradi.
cable, invincibe sentiments of the human
heart; against him is Nature iii all her subtle
forces against him is God. Let him try tc
subdue these.
Mr. Sumner then spoke of the origin and
extent of the crime against Kanzas, reviewing
the history of the Missouri Compromise, its
abrogation, and the efforts made to plant slave
ry in the Territory after the passage of the
| Kanzas- Nebraska act, In this connection he
alluded to the course Of David r. Atchison,
calling him the connecting link between the
president and the border ruffian. At the ses-
sion Of Congress succeeding the passage of the
Nebraska bill, he came tardily to his duty ;
then, after short time disappeared. Like
Catalina, he stalked into this chamber reeking
with conspiracy; then, like Cataline, he skulk-
cd away to join and provoke the conspirotors
who at a distance awaited their cougenial
chief. Mr.. Sumner, after showing how the
Territory was overrun and finally subiugated
to the slave power, proceeded to the second
head of his remarks-the apologies which
have been made for the crime. AS the crime
cannot be denied, apologies are made, but
they are worse than the denial. In cruelty
| HOY fboir
J with the great transgression. They are first,
the apology tyrannical; the apology imbecile;
third, the apology absurd fourth, the apology
infamous. That is all Tyranny, imbecility,
absurdty, and infamy, all unite TO dance, like
the weird sisters, about this crime. The first
is the apology of technicality, founded on tho
mistaken act Of Governor Reeder. The sec
| ond is the apology of imbecility. founded on
the alleged want OF power in the president to
arrest this crime. The third, the apology alb
surd, is founded upon the discovery of the
| Constitution of Society called the Kanzas
Legion-a society which existed only on pa
| per- Yet its oaths have been quoted on this
| floor in order to extenuate the crime against
Kanzas. The fourth, the apology infamous,
| is founded on false testimony against the En-
| igrant Aid Society, and assumptions of duty
more false than the testimony. Defyng truth
and hooking deceEcy, this apology excels all
others in futility and audacity, while, from its
utter hollowness, proves the utter impotence
OF the conspiratoIs to defend their crime. An
Association of sincere beneyolence, faithful
to the Constitution and the laws, whose
only Notifications are hotels, school houses,
and churches whose only weapons are saw
mills, tools, and books whose mission is
peace and good will, has been falsely assoiled
,f. h. 4 1pf MI ~