The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-05-27
senator summers speech.

summers Speech, ana regret exceedingly
that we cannot lay it all before our readers
He opens thus
Mr.. PRESIDENT You arc now called to re-
dress great transgression. Seldom in the
history Of nations has such a question been
presented Tariffs, army bills, navy bills
land bills, are important, and Justly occupy
your care; but these all belong to the course
OF ordinary legislation. AS means and in
strnments only, they are necessarily subor-
clnate 10 the conservation Of Government
itself. Grant them or deny them, in greater
or less degree, and YOU will infict no shock.
The machinery of Government will continue
to move. The State will not cease to exist.
Ear otherwise is it with the eminent question
now before you, involving, rs it does, Liber-
ty in broad Territory, and also involving
the peace Of the whole country, with our
good name in history forever more Take
down your map, Sir, and you will find that
the whole Territory Of Kansas, more than
any other region, occupies the middle spot of
North America, equally distant from the At
lantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west;
| from the frozen waters Of Hudson's Bay
on the north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on
the south, constituting the precise territorial
center Of the whole vast Continent. To such
!
between two oceans, are added soil unsur-
| passed in richness, and fascinating ,unduat-
| ing beauty Of surface, with health giving
climate, calculated to nurture powerful and
generous people, worthy TO be q central pivot
OF American institutions. \ few short
months only have passed since this spacious
mediterranean country was open only TO the
savage, who ran wild in its woods and
pralries; and now it has already drawn to its
| bosom n population of freemen larger than
Athens crowded within her historic gates,
when her sons, under Miltiades, won Liberty
for mankind on the field of Marathon; more
than Sparta contained when she ruled Greece
and sent forth her devoted children. quick
ened by a mothers benedction, to return
with their shields or on them more than
Rome gathered ON her seven hills when, I'M
der her kings, she commenced that sovereign
sway which afterward embraced the whole
earth more than London held when, on the
fields Of Crecy and Agincourt, the English
banner was carried VIGOROUSLY over the chi
Various hosts Of France. Against this Ter
rltorv, thus fortunate in position and popu-
latlon IA Crime has been committed, which is
without example IN the records Of the past.
Not in plundered provinces, or in the cruel
ties of selfish governors, Will YOU find its
stance, which NAV show at least the path Of
justice. In the terrible impeachment bv
which the great Roman Orator has blasted
through all time the name of Verres, amid
charges of robbery and sacrilcge, the enor-
nifty which most aroused the indignant voice
Of his accuser, and which still stands forth
with strongest distinctness, arrested the SYM
pathetic Indignation of all who read the
story, is, that away in Sicily he had scourged
citizen of Rofle--that the cry /" | am q Ro-
mun citizen" had been interposed 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 shrlnes. Ii was in the
presence of the Roman Senate that this ar
ralgnment proceeded; in temple of Fo-
rum amid crowds-such as no orator had
ever before drawn tagether-thronging the
porticos and colonnades, even clinging to
the house-tops and neighboring slopes and
under the anxious gaze Of witnesses sum
moned from the scene of crime. But an au-
dience grander far-of higher dignitv-of
more various people and Of wider intelh-
gence-the countless multitude of succeeding
generations, in every land, where eloquenco
has been studied or where the Roman name
has been recognized-has listened TO the ac-
cusation, and throbbed with condemnation
of the criminal. Sir, speaking in an age
of light, and in land of constitutional H.
berty, where the safeguards of elections are
justly placed among the highest triumphs of
CIVILIZATION, feariessly assert the wrongs of
much abused Sicily, thus memorable in his
tory, were small By the side Of the wrongs Of
Kansas, where the very shines of popular in
stitution, more sacred than anv heather al
hppn a AZ lctl
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 inter-
posed in vain against outrage of every kind,
and even upon life itself Are YOU against
sacrllege? present it for your execration.
Are you against robbery? | hold it up to
your scorn. Are you for the protection of
American citizens: ! show YOU how their
dearest rights have been cloven down, while
lyrannlcal tsurpatlon has sought to in
stan itself on their very necks But the
wickedness which | now begin to expose, is
UNNECESSARILY aggravated by the motive
which prompted it. Not In common lust for
power did this uncommon tragedy have its
origin 1t is the rape of n virgin Territory,
compelling it to the hateful embrace of Sla-
very, and it may be clearly traced to the de-
PRAYED longing for new Slave State, the
hldeous offspring of such crime, in the
/ hope OF adding to the power of Slavery in
the National Government. Yes, Sir, when
the whole world, alike Christian and Turk. is
rising up to cOndem this wrong, and to make
It Kissing to the nations, here in our Re-
public, .torce-aye, Sir, FORCE-has been
openly employed in compelling Kansas to the
| pollution of Slavery, all for the sake of po-
litical power. There is the simple factt-
which you will yainly attempt to deny, but
which IN itself presents an essential wicked
ness that makes other public crimes seem
like public virtues. But this enormity, vast
beyond comparison, swels to Dimensions
of wickedness, which the Imagination tolls in
! ..4.:x L. IL