Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-05-24
SPEECH OF
HON. CHARLES SUMNER,
KANzAs AFFAIRS.
Delivered in Hhe U. States Senate, ON
Monday, May 10, 1855.

care; but these all belong TO the course of or
binary legislation. AS means and instruments
only, they are necessarily subordinate to the
conservation Of government ITSELF Grant
them or deny them in greater or less degree,
aud you will infict no shock. The machine.
ry OF government will continue TO move. The
State will not cease to exist Far otherwise
is 1t with the eminent question now before YOU.
involving as it does, Liberty in a broad terri
tory, aud also involving the peace of the whole
country with our good name IN history for
evermore
lake down your map, sir, and you will fiud
that the Territory OF Kanzas, more than any
other region. occupies the middle spot of North
America, equally distant from the Atlantic ON
this East, and the Pacific on the West; from
the frozen waters of Hudsons Bay on the
north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on the south.
constituting the precise territorial centre Of
the whole vast continent. To such advan-
tages eett-sltuation, on the very high aay be-
cen two oceans, are added soil of unsur-
passed richness, and fascinating, undulat-
ing beauty of surface, with health giving
climate, calculated to nurture powerful and
generous people, worthy to be central pivot
of American institutions. a few short months
only have passed since this spacious nediter-
ranean country was open only to the savage,
now it has already drawn to its bosom a pop
ulation offreemen, larger than Athens, crowd
ed within her historic gates, when her sons,
under MltiRdes, won Liberty for mankind on
the field of Marathon; more than Sparta con-
tanned when she ruled Greece, and sent forth
her devoted children. quickened by a moth
er's benediction, to return with their shields,
or on them; more than Rome gathered on her
seven hills, when, under her kings, she COM
menced that sovereign sway, which afterwards
embraced the whole earth more than Lon
don held, when, on the fields of Crecy and
Agincourt, the English banner was carried
VIGOROUSLY over the chivalrous hosts of France
Against this Territory, thus fortunate in po-
sition and population, a crime has been com
mited, which is without example III the past.
Not in plundered provinces or in the cruelties
Of selfish governors, will you find its parallel;
and yet there is an ancient instance, which
may show at least the path of justice. In the
terrible impeachment by which the great Ro-
Bnan orator has blasted through all time the
1 ane Of VerTes, amidst charges of robbery
and sacrilege, the enormity W ich most arous-
ed the indignant voice of his accuser, and
which still stands forth with strongest distinct
ness, resting the sympathetic indignation of
all who read the story, is, that away in Sicily,
he had scourged citizen Of Rome-that the
cry, 81 am a Roman citizen" had been inter-
posed in vain against the lash of the tyrant
governor. Other charges were, that he had
carried away productions of art, and that he
had violated the sacred shrines 1t was in the
presence OF the Roman Senate that this ar
fragment proceeded; in temple of the Fo-
rum; amidst crowds-sueh as no orator had
ever before drawn together-thronging the
porticos and colonnades, even clinging to the
house tops and neighboriug slopes-and un-
der the anxious gaze of witnesses summoned
from the scene of crime. But an audience
grander far-of higher dignity-of more vari-
Gus people and OF wider intelligence--the
countless multitude OF succeeding generations,
in every land where eloquence has been stud
led, or where the Roman name has been rec
ognized-has listened to the accusation, and
throbbed with condemnation of the criminal.
Sir, speaking iDl an age of light, and in land
of constitutional liberty, where the safeguards
of elections>are justly placed among the high
est triuDiBhs of civilization, fearlessly assert
t hat the wrongs of much abused Sicily, thus
memorable in history, were small by the side
of the wrongs of Kansas, where the very
shrines of popular institutions, more sacred
than any heather altar, have been desecrated;
where the ballot box, more precious than any
work, in ivory or marble, from the cunning
hand of art. has been plundered; and where
the cry 81 am an American citizen," has been
interposed in vain against outrage OF every
kind, even upon life itself. Are you against
sacrileges present it for your eXecration.
Are YOU against robbery hold 1T up to your
scorn. Are you for the protection OF Ameri-
can citizens l show you how their dearest
rights have been cloven down, while tyran-
nical usurpation has sought to install itself on
their very necks
But the wickedness which now begin to
expose, is UNNECESSARILY aggravated by the
motive which prompted 1t. Not in any COM
mon lust for power did this uncommon trage-
DIV have its origin. 1t is the rape of virgin
Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace
Of Slavery and it may be clearly traced to
depraved longing for a new slave State, the
hideous offspring OF such crime, in the hope
of adding to the power Of slavery in the Ma
tional Government. Yes, sir, when the whole
world, alike Christian and Turk, is rising up
to condemn this wrong, and to make lit hiss
ing to the nations, here in our Republic, force
- ave, sir, FORCE-has been openly EN- ploy
ed in compelling Kanzas to the pollution of
Slavery, all Tor the sake Of political power
There is simple fact, which you will vainly
attemptto deny, but which in itself presents
an essential wickedness, that makes other pub
lie crimes seem like public virtues.
But this enormity, vast beyond comparison,
swells TO dimensions OF wickedness which the
Imagination tolls in vain to grasp, when it is
understood, that for this purpose are lazardsd
the horrors of intestine leud, not only III this
distant Territory, but everywhere throughout
the country. Already the muster has begun.
The stnie is no longer local, but national.
Even now, while speak, portents hang on
all the arches OF the horizon, threatening To
darken the broad land, which already yawns
with the muttorngs of civil war. The iury
OF the propagandists oil Slavery, and the calu
determination Of their opponents, are now dit.
fused from the distant territory, over wide.
spread communities, and the whole country
in all its ex.ent-marshaling hostile divisions
aud foreshadowing strife, which, unIes,
happily averted bv the triumph Of Freedom
will become -fraIicdal, parcida war
with an accumulated wckedness beyond th,
wckedness OF any war in human annals
Justly provoking the avenging judgment o
Providence, and the ayenging pen OF hist Dry
and constituting strife, in the language 0
the ancient writer, more than foreign, NOR
than social more than cigH; but something
compounded Of all these strifes, aud in itsel
more than war; sed potias commune quoddan
&C omnibas, 81 Plus guam botiam.
such IL tho crime which YOU are TO judge