The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-17
VOL. X.

power and prestige of Slavery in the Emit.
States are passing away. The slave S,a,.
practically governed the Union directly for fse
years. They govern it now, only indirsrtlS
through the agency Of Northern hands. tenn
rarily enlisted in their support. So much. OWL,
to the decline of their power, they have alresd5
conceded to the free States. The next stem +
they persist in their present course. will he -
resumption and exercise by the free States or tLs
control of the Government, without such conc.
sions as they have hitherto made to Obtain :
Throughout period of nearly twenty wears n.
defenders of Slavery screened it from discuss;o.
in the national councils. Now they practic.H
confess to the necessity for defending il hero -
initiating discussion themselves. They Lar,
once thrown away their most successful veo,,1
compromise, and worn out that one which w..
next in effectiveness, threats of secession fr,1
the Union. 1t Is under such unpropitjous 81;
cumstances that they begin the new experims,.
OF extending Slavery into free territory bv for.
the armed power Of the Federal Goyern,,s.,
You WA need many votes from free states IN ~,
House of Representatives, and even some ~.
from those States in this House, TO send an avn.
with retinue OF slaves in its train iato Kap.s.
Have you counted up your votes in the tva
Houses Have you calculated how long rhos,
who shall cast such votes will retain their Ma.
in the National Legislature?
But will grant, for the sake of the aro,,ro.,,
that with Federal battaliOns YOU can carr n.
very into Kansas, and maintain il tbero A.
you quite confident that this republican firm y,
government can then be upheld and preser,e31
You will then yourselves have introduced ~.
Trojan horse. No republican Government everb,.
endured, with standing armies maintained IN il.
bosom to enforce submission to its laws. peonl.
Nph haN-a 81
under compulsion, will not be long in forget;r,
that they ever had any. In extending Slarp-
into Kansas, therefore, by arms, you will sl.b7e-
the liberties of the people.
Senators of the free States | appeal 10 wa
Believe We the prophets? | know YOU do. Yr
know, then, that Slavery neither works mines A.
quarries, nor POUNDS cities, nor builds ships r.-
levies armies, nor mans navies. WHY, H.,
will you insist on closing up this new Terrific,
OF Kansas against all enriching streams of H.
migration, while you pour into it the turbid s,l
poisonous waters of African Slavery? VII
one of you all, whether of Connecticut or OF Pen.
sylvania, or of Illinois, or of Michigan, would Ca
sent thus to eItingush the chief light of ciyif,.
ton within the State in which your own for,r...
are cast, and in which your own posterity ar.t
live? Why will you pursue a policy so uuk-t
so ungenerous, and 30 unjust, towards the L.p
less, defenceless, struggling Territory of Kara,
inhabited as 1t is by your own brethren, dept,d |
ing on You for protection and safety? viii Ss
very In Kansas add to the wealth or power OF ys-
own States, or to the wealth, power. or Elory q,
the Republic? You know that il will diminisb IN
of these. You profess desire to end this nation,
debate about Slavery, which has become, for Won
lntolerable. Is it not time to renquish nh,
hope2 You have exhausted the virtue for III.
purpose, that resided in compacts and platform.
IN the suppression of the right of petition and
arbitrary parliamentary laws and in abneQatM
OF Federal authority over the subject of SLAYER
within the National Territories VIII Won even
then end the debate, by binding Kansas with
chains, for the safety of Slavery in Nilsson
Even then you must give over Utah to SLAYER '
TO make it secure and permanent in Kansas; AMI
you must give over Oregon and Washington %
Doth Poiygamy and Slavery, so as to guaraly
equally the one and the other Of those pecul-
domestic institutions in Utah and so YOU nus.
go on, sacrificing on the shrine of peace Territory
after Territory until the prevailing nationally Of
freedom and of virtue shall be lost and the
vicious anomalies, which you have hitherto vain
ly hoped Almighty Wisdom would remove from
among you without your own concurrence, shal. |
become the controlling elements in the Republic |
lie who found a river in his path and sat down
to wait for the food to pass away, was not noro
unwise than he who expects the agitation Of
Slavery to cease, while the love of Freedom AMI
mates the bosoms of mankind
The solemnity of the occasion draws over our
heads that cloud of disunion, which always arises
whenever the sub ect OF Slavery is agitated Still
the debate goes on, more ardently. earnestly ami
angrily, than ever before. 1t EMPLOYS now not
merely logic, reproach, menace, retort and deh
ance, but sabres, rifles, and cannon Do YOU looA
through this incpient quite to the end and see
hnrn ! 1.
If So pray enighten me- and show me
how long the way is which leads to that repo.
The free States are loyal, and they always wi
remain so. Their foothod on this Continent
firm and sure. Their ability to maintain thea
selves, unaided, under the present Constitute
is established. The slave States, also. have ben
loyal hitherto, and | hope and trust they e,s
may remain so. But if disunion could ever COM.
1t would come in the form of a secession Of ,ar
States; and it would come, then
when the slaveholding power, which is areiir
firmly established on the Gulf of Mexico and IN
tends n thousand miles northward along 10th
banks of the Mississippi, should have fastened is
irons upon the fountains of the Ws
souri, and the slopes OF the Rocky Mountains
Then that power would either be intoerably su-
preme in this Republic, or it would strike for inde
pendence or exclusive domination. Then the Tes
States and slave States of the Atlantic divided
and warning with each other would disgust The
Tree States of the Pacific and they would have
abundant cause and justification for Withdraw
ing from Union productive no longer OF peac,
safety, and liberty to themselves, and no long'
holding up the cherished hopes of mankind
Mr.. President, the Continental Congress
1897, on resigning the trust, which it had di,
charged with signal fidelity, into the hands
the authorities elected under the new Constiu
lion, and in taking leave of their constituents
TO the people of the United States tn
injunction "Let it never be forge I
ten, that the cause of the United States ia
always been the cause of human nature l.
US recall that precious monition let us exa-
me the ways which we have pursued hither
under the light thrown upon them by that nstra
lion. We shall find, in doing so, that We hs''
forgotten moral right, in the pursuit of matters
greatness, and we shall cease hcnceiorth iron
upon ourselves the miserable delusioa
that we can safely extend Empire, when we shi
nave become reckless of the obligations of Etc
nal Justice, and faithless to the interests OF Ca-
7ersal Freedom.