The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-07-22

nown in fighting for oppression or, II
YOU achieve fame, it will be like that OF
the madman who applied the torch to
the temple of Ephesus-a bad pre-em-
inence. Some of you have the mental
gifts and culture and position to achieve
fame that should be permanent and
enviable. Have you the moral heroism
to do it?
"Fear not; spurn the worldling's laughter,
Thine ambition trsmpie thou;
Thou shalt find long hereafter
To be more than tempts thee now"
Let us, then, hear nothing more of
North and South. We make no assault
on the rights of the South it is the
wrongs and aggressions of Slavery with
which we grapple. The South, the cit
liens of the South, have all the rights,
privileges, and immunities, of the citi-
zens of the North or West. Let those
rights be guaranteed and protected, any
where and everywhere, "to the fullest
extent-to the fullest extent, SIR"
The King of France, Louis XIV, in
view of the union of that country and
Spain,. said, "there are no longer any
Pyrenees. And say, let there be no
longer any Mason and Dixon's line let
it disappear, and let the country be one
united whole; the rights of all equally
respected, equally sacred.
But, as to Slavery, that is different
thing. Whatever legal sanction it may
have, under municipal statutes, it has no
constitutional sanction, save the mega
tive one of being let alone; while it
skulks under and behind the sovereignty
of the States, beyond the reach of the
delegated powers of the Federal Gov
eminent. But where that Government
has exclusive jurisdiction, it has no right !;
and it has no moral right anywhere, and
no suitable abode out of those penal
fires that are never quenched. 1t is a
very Cahban.
"Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens cui
lumen ademptum."
And this brings me, sir, to the ques-
ton which | desire to discuss the ques-
ton not only of the day, but of the age
the most important question that has
agitated the country since the Revolu-
ton, and the most solemn and grave one
with which Christian civilization has had
to grapple in modern times.
The President, in his message, claims,
or rather assumes, that human beings
are property in the absolute and un-
qualified sense-prOperty, as the gra-
zing OK or the bale of merchandise is
property and that the tenure of this
property is a natural and indefeasible
right, guaranteed by the Constitution.
And it has been averred on the floor of
this House, that, as an abstract prin-
ciple, the system of American Slavery
was right, having the sanction of natural
and of revealed religion. AS the whole
of this discussion, in its real merits,
hinges on this principle or dogma, con-
front it at the very threshold, and deny
it. affirm that it has not the sanction
of natural or revealed religion, or of the
Constitution. t
need not say that this is new doc
trine, unknown to the fathers and found
ers of the Republic. Indeed, till within
very few years, Slavery was acknowl-
edged by all classes, in the slave no less
than in the free States, to be an evil,
social, moral, and POLITICAL wrong to
the slave, detriment to the master,
and blight ON the soil its very exist
ence deplored, and its ultimate extermi-
nation looked forward to with earnest
and often impatient hope. 1t was re-
garded as the relic of barbarous age,
which must disappear before the advan-
cling civilization of the present. 1t was
deemed to be contrary to the benign
spirit and precepts of the Christian re-
ligion, which would ere long supplant it.
Many of its ablest and truest opponents
were reared in the midst of it, and could
be called neither Intermediates nor
fanatics. No one pretended that it had
any right whatever beyond the limits of
the local laws which created and pro-
tected it.
But all this is changed now. The
demon of Slavery has come forth from
the tombs. 1t has grown bold, and de-
fiant, and impudent. 1t has left its
lair, lifted its shameless front towards
the skies, and, with horrid contortions
and gyrations, mouths the heavens, and
mutters its blasphemies about having
the sanction of holy and just God;
| lodges behind the national compact, and
grins and chatters out its senile pueril-
tiles about constitutional sanction; and
then, like very fantastic ape, jumps
upon the bench, puts on ermine and
wig, and pronounces the dictim that
certain class of human beings have no
rights which another class are bound to
regard; and then it claims the right to
stalk abroad through the length and
breadth of the land, robbing the poor
free laborer of his heritage, trampling
on Congressional prohibitions, crushing
out beneath its tread State sovereignty
and State Constitutions. 1t claims the
right to pollute the Territories with its
Shiny footsteps, and then makes its way
to the very home of Freedom in the free
States, carried there on constitutional
palanquin, manufactured and borne aloft
on the one side by Democratic Execu-
tive, and on the other by Democratic
Jesuit Judge! 1t claims the right to
annihilate free schools-for this its very
presence achieves-to hamper a free
press, to defile the pulpit, to corrupt re-
ligion, and to stife free thought and free
speech 1t claims the right to convert
the fruitful field into a wilderness, so
that forests shall grow up around grave
yards, and the populous village become
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