m 
 
POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. I. WASHBURN, JR., 
 
 OF MAINE. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, 
 
 JUNE 21, 1856. 
 
 The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the 
 ttate of the Union. 
 
 Mr. WASHBURN, of Maine, said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman : In this year, 1856, a great 
 moral and political battle is to be fought. It is 
 the old quarrel — the strife of centuries and con- 
 tinents — but one of its decisive conflicts is here 
 and now impending. As it shall be decided, so 
 will run the history of America and of mankind 
 for ages. The cause, so distinctly presented ; 
 the parties, so boldly arrayed; the theatre, so 
 vast .*Bd commanding; the time, so quick and 
 ripe ; rai?e it to an elevation immeasurably above 
 any controversy which the world has witnessed 
 for two hundred years. In this elemental war — 
 this straggle of principles — shall justice, truth, 
 and humanity, prevail, and give ''"> f,,f — to an 
 
 under 
 bdued, 
 nature Laid open, and the laws of 
 human progress truly interpreted and made sub- 
 servient to the advancement and welfare of the 
 race? or, failing, shall this civilization itself, the 
 child of so many struggles, agonies, and hopes — 
 " The heir of all the aires in the foremost files of time" — 
 be left to the fate which everywhere and forever 
 attends the supremacy of wrong, falsehood, and 
 Inhumanity ". 
 
 Sir, it is for you, for the representatives of the 
 people here, but rather for the people themselves 
 in the primary places of power, in the forum 
 which precedes the caucus and the ballot-house, 
 to answer. The powers of right and wrong are 
 face to face: and, voluntarily or otherwise, upon 
 the one side or the other, you are all enrolled in 
 the service. 
 
 The old controversy goes on, but the issues 
 change. No longer have men to array themselves 
 against the particular and individual wrongs 
 wkich the reformers of past ages denounced and 
 resisted. Not alone, the work of Luther, not 
 merely the work of Hampden, no" of Milton, 
 Marvell, and Sydney, of Washington and Jeffer- 
 
 son, is for this time or for you — but auotii "4 
 greater, as embracing theirs and that o y 
 
 reformer and philanthropist, of every I ei 
 
 and statesman, in the annals of Christen It 
 
 is yours to deny, to encounter, and to mi- 
 
 nate the monstrous delusion, that man right- 
 fully and justly hold property in man. >ince the 
 days of Luther, no such cause, in the 'ess of 
 its issues, has summoned men to the b ftlt fields 
 of principle and opinion. ThatSla ght is 
 
 now upheld and maintained open . defi- 
 
 antly, before the world, and iur ,• ' before 
 
 Heaven. We are told that it is J • j in truth 
 and justice ; that it is so wise anu ■ >er, that it 
 ought not to be limited in its beneuts to any 
 portion of the country ; and that to enlarge its 
 area is a duty so high and compulsory as to jus- 
 tify the breach of compacts and compromises, 
 and the violation of the most solemn pledges of 
 honor and good faith. 
 
 This is the doctrine of to-day, spoken in words 
 by the representatives of half of the States in the 
 Union, and written legibly — ay, sir, in letters of 
 crimson, which neither heat, nor frost, nor thun- 
 der shall obliterate, in their works and deeds. 
 There is at last no room for error, doubt, or de- 
 ception. No longer do slaveholders excuse the 
 system of Slavery, and bewail the misfortune of 
 its existence. They justify it, and plant them- 
 selves upon it as a blessing, which they propose 
 the people of the free States shall enjoy as well 
 as themselves, whether they will or not, or have 
 no advantage from the common territory of the 
 nation ; for they know full well — none better, 
 because they have seen it all their lives — that 
 where slave labor is permitted, free labor is vir- 
 tually excluded ; that if Kansas admits slave 
 labor, she at the same time and by the same act 
 repels free labor; I mean such labor as exists and 
 thrives at the North — intelligent, thrifty, respect- 
 able free labor, and not the ragged, unhoused, 
 untaught, white labor of the slaveholding States. 
 
 Since Slavery has taken this position, it becomct 
 
V 
 
 ihp people of the free States to inquire more care- 
 fully than they have found necessary heretofore 
 into its character and claims. To us of the North, 
 the whole question is now opened. If Slavery be 
 right, it is very plain that there ought to be no 
 clogs upon its feet, and it is our duty to cease all 
 opposition to its extension; if wrong, it ought to 
 be put in fetters, and it is our duty to keep it in 
 the narrowest possible constitutional limits. The 
 claim that it shall go into Kansas implies the 
 declaration that it is right. The real question, 
 disguise it as men will, is, Is it right? For the 
 one-idea man who thinks it is, and says so, I 
 have respect ; for the doughface who believes that 
 it is not, and says practically by his acts and votes 
 that it is, i have nothing but loathing and unutter- 
 able scorn. Sir, if Slavery be right in the largest 
 sense, it is beneficent — it is for the advantage of 
 the slave, the slaveholder, and of the State. If it 
 wrong either, it can have no good foundation in 
 principle or in fact. If justifiable or defensible at 
 all, it cannot be limited to the black. The negro 
 is a man. He stands upright; he sees, hears, 
 speaks, feels, as other men. He has intelligence ; 
 he converses, reasons, laughs, and weeps; re- 
 quites, resents; loves, and hates. The essential 
 part oi" him is not his color, his hair, or heel. The 
 Ilicbmc nd Enquirer, the leading Southern jour- 
 nals, aLd intelligent Pro-Slavery men generally, 
 admit that there is no foundation in reason for 
 limiting Slavery to the negro, and maintain that 
 the whites who are ignorant and dependent upon 
 the labor of their hands for subsistence ought to 
 be held in Slavery, and that it would be better 
 for them to be slaves than freemen. To this 
 point I quote the Enquirer as follows : 
 
 " They [those holding Mr. Jefi'erson's doctrine] 
 ' begin to reason, by assuming Slavery to be 
 ' morally and religiously wrong ; and the South 
 ' hitherto has granted their premises, and at- 
 ' tempted to justify Negro Slavery as an exception 
 ' to a general rule, or, if wrong, as a matter of 
 1 bargain between the North and the South. The 
 ' laws of God and nature are immutable, and man 
 1 cannot bargain them away. While it is far more 
 ' obvious that negroes should be slaves than 
 ' whites — for they are only fit to labor, not to 
 ' direct — yet the principle of Slavery is itself right, 
 ' and does not depend on difference of complexion." 
 
 Again, in another article, I read: 
 
 " Freedom is not possible without Slwicky. 
 
 * Every civil polity, and every social system, im- 
 ' plies gradation of rank and condition. In the 
 ' States of the South, an aristocracy of white men is 
 
 based on Negro Slaveri/ ; and tub absence of 
 
 * Negro Slavery would be supplied by white 
 
 « MEN." 
 
 A Mr. Fitzhugh, of Virginia, published, in 
 1854, a work entitled, " Sociology for the South; or 
 the Failure of Free Society," and which has been 
 extravagantly commended in the slave States, as 
 an exposition of the foundation and philosophy 
 of Slavery. From an appendix to this volume, 
 I make the following extracts : 
 
 " In old countries, human wisdom can devise 
 ' no effectual means to provide for the poor, where 
 
 * lands have become separate property, except by 
 ' making tlavtt of thost tcho hold no property to those 
 
 ' who have property, and thus, in fact, if not in 
 ' form, establishing a community of property. 
 ' The history of the free States of Europe, for the 
 ' last sixty years, and the present condition of 
 ' the poor in those States, we think conclusively 
 ' prove this. All parties admit that society there 
 ' requires radical change. They must go back to 
 ' domestic Slavery. Civilized sogiety cannot ex- 
 ' 1ST without it." * * * 
 
 " Slavery protects the weaker members of so- 
 ' ciety, just as do the relations of parent, guardian, 
 ' and husband, and is as necessary, as natural, and 
 ' almost as universal, as those relations." * * * 
 
 " Ten years ago, we became satisfied thatSla- 
 ' very, black or white, was right and necessary. 
 ' We advocated this doctrine in very many es- 
 ' says." 
 
 This is the logical and consistent Southern doc- 
 trine, and whoever believes in Slavery cannot 
 stop until he reaches this startling position. An 
 African who is as intelligent, capable, and honest, 
 as a Caucasian, cannot be reduced to Slavery 
 upon any principle which would not enslave the 
 latter. Color alone dooms no man to Slavery, nor 
 does race ; for wheresoever, in all other countries 
 than America, Slavery has been known, it has 
 existed irrespective of color or race. In Greece 
 and Rome, under such civilizations as they en- 
 joyed, this relic of barbarism was recognised and 
 affirmed ; and it is found at this day, in a miti- 
 gated form, in the hybrid civilization of Russia — 
 in no one of which countries have the relations 
 between the enslaver and the enslaved been deter- 
 mined by considerations of race and color, so 
 much as by those of intelligence and will on the 
 one hand, and ignorance and degradation upon 
 the other. Originating in a barbarous age, tho 
 practice of Slavery was founded in the right of 
 the strongest, the bloody charter of force. The 
 weaker, without respect to color, feature, or 
 race, was subjected to the stronger, and made 
 his thrall. T^e title of the robber was that of 
 the first slaveholder. Having its origin in vio- 
 lence and wrong, and existing in subversion of 
 natural right and justice, its character, tendency, 
 and influence, are such as belong to, and proceed 
 from, violence and wrong, everywhere and always. 
 This is the inexorable and universal law: what a 
 man sows, that also shall he reap. It is the pen- 
 alty of Slavery, to be punished whenever it is 
 embraced. Here is its doom, as inevitable as it 
 is dreadful, that it must breathe its own at- 
 mosphere, and, after its kind, propagate fraud, 
 vice, corruption, weakness, barbarism. No power, 
 short of that which suspends the operation of 
 the laws of earth and heaven, can withdraw it 
 from the consequences and penalties its own na- 
 ture postulates and invites. It may seem to 
 flourish for a time, but, false and unnatural in 
 its essence, its prosperity is unsubstantial and 
 illusory. As it can have no true life, what at 
 times may present this appearance is the hectic 
 of disease rather than the glow of health. Wrong 
 everywhere, and in all ages, it is now as it was 
 in the beginning and ever shall be, a curse to the 
 land in which it exists ; and to all whom it af- 
 fects — not more to the slave than to the slave- 
 owner and others : less it may be, for in less do- 
 

 gree in him may the life's life be cankered and 
 consumed. The evil which breaks upon the 
 bodies of men may leave the soul, however 
 undeveloped, whole and uncorrupted ; while 
 that which, in mocking kindness, leaves the 
 mortal free, may assail with subtile and relentless 
 purpose the immortal part of man. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I will say nothing for offence — 
 nothing for the sake of wounding the feelings of 
 any man : God forbid ! But, sir, I must declare 
 frankly — and no true man will complain of me 
 for so doing — the opinions which I do most sin- 
 cerely and devoutly entertain. The thoughts 
 
 its victims, that you may not heed her, or only 
 heed to betray ! 
 
 No,, sir, no; you cannot make this thing of 
 Slavery right. God did not make it right. That 
 He permits it for wise and beneficent purposes 
 does not detract from its essential wrong, nor 
 justify its supporters and apologists. That He 
 did not make it right, may be read in the conse- 
 quences and penalties which attach to the dom- 
 inant races wherever it exists. No civilization, 
 and no nation, in the history of the world, have 
 tolerated Slavery with impunity : decay and 
 death have followed its embrace in all coun- 
 
 which possess me, and which I cannot bridle, tries and all ages. It could not have been other- 
 will be uttered. Feeling that Slavery is the wise; and a different fate cannot await the 
 weakness and misfortune of the South, I can American people, if they shall commit themselves 
 have no word of reproach or complaint, merely irrecoverably to this giant wrong. Of the laws 
 as such, against her, but, though she does not by which the world is governed, perhaps none is 
 thank me for it, regret and commiseration rather, better ascertained, or more generally recognised 
 And did she not seek to extend the evil which by its soundest thinkers, than that which requires 
 oppresses her to other States, and to reduce to 
 her own unfortunate condition the vast territory 
 of the United States occupying the heart of the 
 continent, I would have no occasion, and per- 
 haps no excuse, for engaging in this discussion. 
 But when she assails my constituents, and strikes 
 at their rights, the cause is theirs and mine, and 
 she must permit me to resist what she has no 
 claim to»enforce, and to talk with her frankly of 
 the reasons which constrain such resistance. I 
 should do great injustice to the intelligent and 
 straightforward people whom I have the honor 
 to represent here, if I failed for any reason to 
 speak the truth, and the whole truth, so far as I 
 have received it, and to act faithfully and fear- 
 lessly up to its commands. Some one has said, 
 " It is a dire calamity to have a slave, but an inex- 
 piable curse to be one ; " to be a voluntary slave 
 to the opinions, the errors, the caprices, and 
 prejudices, of others. The wretched bondman, 
 ■• Who, with a body filled, and vacant mind, 
 Gets him to rest, crarnrrCd with, distressful breadp 
 feels no curse, and endures no shame, like him 
 who, having in his soul a great truth, interesting 
 to mankind, is base enough to suppress it, that 
 falsehood may occupy its place. 
 
 Of the evil and wrong of Slavery, so far as 
 respects the slave, I do not propose to speak at 
 length. They are so gross and obvious, and so 
 much has been said and written upon the sub- 
 ject, that to do so would be, one might hope, a 
 work of supererogation. A system which buys 
 and sells men, women, and little children, as if 
 they were brutes ; which regards not the relation 
 of husband and wife ; separates parent and child ; 
 which mocks the ties of kindred, and swamps, in 
 the foul and dismal waters of greed and sensu- 
 ality, the sweetest and holiest affections of the 
 heart, can require no exposition from me. A 
 poor woman, fleeing from Slavery, weary, ex- 
 hausted, famishing, comes trembling and speech- 
 less to your door, and supplicates you with her 
 eyes so passionately, so beseechingly, that a 
 heart of flint would dissolve before her, to have 
 pity on her and the child she still clutches to 
 her breast ; but the necessities of this system 
 are so imperious, and its securities so doubtful, 
 because of the severity with which it bears upon 
 
 quires 
 every man to be his own architect and builder. 
 As a man doeth, so is he. Who would be free, 
 or strong, or wise, or great, himself must strike 
 the blow. No vicarious offices suffice here : 
 neither men nor States ean be saved from with- 
 out : no learning, no freedom, or strength, can 
 be true and real, which come not of exercise and 
 achievement; and no community can have the 
 advantage of these, in which there is not the 
 largest competition among all the classes and 
 races of which it is composed. 
 
 Where Slavery exists, the physical and manual 
 labor is performed by the servile class, and such 
 labor becomes servile and dishonorable. Where 
 as in the Southern States, the slaves are com- 
 posed of the African or black race, the blacks do 
 the work ; and what they do, it is not reputable 
 for white men to engage in, and they do not 
 where they can avoid it ; and thus they live upon 
 the muscles and labor of others, which is the next 
 thing to no life, or to vegetating. And, hence, 
 habits of idleness and indolence creep over the 
 dominant class, and bind them in a slaverv, if 
 not as galling, more hopeless than that to which 
 they have subjected others. The greatest evil 
 which can befall a man, a race, or a nation, is 
 to be removed from the necessity to labor. To 
 withdraw a class from physical and mental labor, 
 is to inflict a vital injury upon that class, and 
 .to assure its deterioration. When men are placed 
 beyond the necessity to labor, the thews and 
 sinews of mind and body are relaxed ; the fresh- 
 ness, activity, and vigor, without which there ij 
 no strength, and but little life, are unfelt; habits 
 of thrift and economy are not cultivated ; and 
 the spirit of enterpcise is undeveloped. This is 
 already being demonstrated by the experience ot 
 the South. From the operation of all-pervading 
 laws, the labor of that country is of the rudest 
 and simplest kinds, and is almost wholly confined 
 to agriculture. There is no building or sailing 
 of ships by their people, and no manufactures 
 among them to make any account of. What the 
 earth will produce by the old processes of culti- 
 vating it they have — no more, and never will 
 have more. The laborer has no spur to effort ; 
 and the master has lost, through inactivity and 
 the habitudes of his position, the ambition and 
 
energy indispensable to all progress; and so 
 the years roll on, witnessing no improvement ; 
 the soil, in absence of skillful husbandry, be- 
 comes more and more exhausted, and the shad- 
 ows of poverty creep over and darken all the 
 land. 
 
 The influence of Slavery upon the prosperity 
 of a community can be no better illustrated than 
 by a reference to the history of Virginia, the 
 mother of States and statesmen, as she has been 
 called — half-sister of decay, as she is. At a 
 period not remote, says her late Governor, ?.he 
 stood pre-eminent as a commercial State ; her 
 trade exceeded that of all New England ; and the 
 city of New York, in the extent of her shipping 
 and commerce, was behind the ancient borough 
 of Norfolk. At the time of the Revolutionary 
 war, the commerce of Virginia waa four times that 
 of New York. In 1853, the imports into the latter 
 were $180,000,000, and into the former less than 
 $400,000. Whence this remarkable change ? Is 
 it because the location, soil, climate, or natural 
 facilities, of the "Old Dominion," are inferior to 
 those of the "Empire State?" Certainly not ; 
 for it is true, as Governor Johnson says, that 
 " Virginia has greatly the advantage over any 
 portion of the North, in all the elements requisite 
 to constitute a commercial and prosperous com- 
 munity." There is but one answer, and that 
 lies expanded before the eyes of all men. It is, 
 that Virginia is a slave and New York a free 
 State. Virginia may try as many expedients and 
 palliatives as she pleases, but she cannot change 
 her destiny without changing her system of labor. 
 She may increase her debt, absolute and con- 
 tingent, of $35,000,000 to $350,000,000, if she 
 chooses, and lay off her entire area into a net- 
 work of railroads, and it will avail her not, so 
 long as the fatal arrow sticks in her side. When 
 she shall be wise and strong enough to withdraw 
 it, she will enter upon a high career of prosperity 
 and happiness, and not before. 
 
 The circumstances of Slavery and its influence 
 are such, that wherever it largely exists there can 
 be no successful commerce, because there cannot 
 be the industry and energy which create and pro- 
 tect it. They build railroads in the South to-day, 
 as they did, to some extent, in the North, in the 
 inception of those enterprises, by loaning the 
 credit of State Governments. They establish 
 banks in several of the States, not upon the sur- 
 plus capital of the country, for of this there is 
 little, but upon moneys hind fur that purpose upon 
 the bonds and scrip of the Statu. I noticed in a 
 newspaper, not long ago, that a city in one of 
 the Southern States was to be sold upon execu- 
 tion, in payment of debts contracted for water- 
 works, gas-works, and a hotel I Where, but in 
 a slave State, would not the expedients of pri- 
 vate enterprise and capital be sufficient for pur- 
 poses like these ? 
 
 Senator Clay, of Alabama, has drawn a most 
 gloomy picture of things at the South. In an 
 address, delivered not long ago, he says : 
 
 ' I can show you, with sorrow, in the older 
 'portions of Alabama, and in my native county 
 ' of Madison, the sad memorials of the artless 
 ♦*nd exhausting culture of cotton. Our small 
 
 ' planters, after taking the cream of their lands, un- 
 ' able to restore them by rest, manures, or other- 
 ' wise, are going further west and south, in search 
 ' of other virgin lands, which they may and will 
 ' despoil and impoverish in like maimer. Our 
 ' wealthier planters, with greater means, and no 
 ' more skill, are buying out their poor neighbors, 
 ' extending their plantations, and adding to their 
 ' slave force. The wealthy lew, who are able to 
 ' live on smaller profits, and to give their blasted 
 ' fields some rest, are thu3 pushing off the many 
 ' who are merely independent. Of the 20,000,000 
 ' dollars annually realized from the sale of the 
 ' cotton crop of Alabama, nearly all not expend- 
 ' ed in supporting the producers, is reinvested in 
 ' land and negroes. 
 
 " Thus the white population has decreased, 
 ' and the slave increased, almost pari passu, in 
 ' several counties in our State. In 1825, Madison 
 ' county cast about three thousand votes ; now, 
 ' she cannot cast exceeding two thousand three 
 ' hundred. In traversing that county, one will 
 ' discover numerous farm-houses, once the abode 
 ' of industrious and intelligent freemen, now oc- 
 ' cupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and 
 ' dilapidated ; he will observe fields, once fertile, 
 ' now unfenced, abandoned, and covered with 
 ' those evil harbingers, fox-tail and broomsedge ; 
 ' he will see the moss growing on the moulder- 
 ' ing walls of once thrifty villages, and will find 
 ' 'one only master grasps the whole domain,' that 
 ' once furnished happy homes for a dozen white 
 ' families. Indeed, a country in its infancy, 
 1 where fifty years ago scarce a forest tree had 
 ' been felled by the axe of the pioneer, is already 
 ' exhibiting the painful signs of senility and de- 
 ' cay apparent in Virginia and the Carolinas." 
 
 In a recent speech in the Senate, I know the 
 Senator has taken exception to the use which has 
 been made of this quotation ; and he alleges that 
 he had reference to consequences resultiug from 
 unskillful husbandry, rather than from the exist- 
 ence of Slavery. But, sir, his explanation does 
 not relieve him. Why ia the husbandry of the 
 Southern States thit- unskillful? Their lands are 
 being worn out and exhausted, as the Senator 
 says, and they have not the enterprise, skill, or 
 means, to renovate them, or, as our Yankee farm- 
 ers would say, to "bring them to." Under this 
 system, the country jrrows poorer, year by year. 
 So, while in the North railroad stockholders count 
 with certainty upon a constant increase of busi- 
 ness and traffic, those in the South must, after a 
 few years at furthest, look for a gradual decrease 
 upon all but a few great trunk routes. As there 
 are no manufactures iu a slaveholding country, 
 towns and villages do not grow up on the lines 
 of road therein, and the chief articles of trans- 
 portation are the products of agriculture, which, 
 as the lands become exhausted under the South- 
 ern processes of agriculture, will gradually but 
 certainly fall off. These roads, built upon State 
 credit, and usually at extravagant prices, because 
 not so closely looked after as those which are 
 managed by the proprietors themselves, and for 
 the same reasons more loosely operated than 
 those chiefly owned by individual stockholders, 
 will, i*. may be well feared, be able in man/ 
 
cases, to pay but little more than their running 
 expenses. This is a dark picture, no doubt, and 
 Bhadea already too large a portion of our Amer- 
 ican landscape. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, as nothing flourished where 
 the foot of the Visigoth had been, so there can 
 be no prosperity beneath the tread of Slavery. 
 Not merely does it paralyze everything like en- 
 terprise and improvement, but it benumbs life 
 upon all its sides — intellectual, a>sthetic, and 
 moral, as well as material. Not more noticeable 
 is the scarcity of merchant princes, cunning arti- 
 sans, and intelligent laborers, at the South, than 
 the utter destitution of any names in her midst 
 of distinguished note in science, art, and litera- 
 ture. Her Franklins, Bowditches, Sillimans, and 
 Clevelands, where are they? The names of her 
 painters and sculptors are unwritten. Among 
 her historians are no Irvings, Prescotts, or Ban- 
 crofts. Upon the roll of novelists she inscribes 
 the name of Simms ; but shows no Cooper, 
 Paulding, Hawthorne, Stovve, or Curtis. Of the 
 one hundred and forty-one poets, of whom biog- 
 raphies are given in Griswold's " Poets and Poet- 
 ry of America," only fifteen are natives of the 
 slave States ; and among these are no Longfel- 
 lows, Bryants, Whittiers, Willises, and Hallecks. 
 The Minnesingers are no longer found in the land 
 of chivalry ; and the sunny South has no power 
 to quicken the Ci vision and the faculty divine.' 
 Indeed, sir, the city of Portland, in my own State, 
 has made more contributions to literature, which 
 the world will not willingly let die, than all the 
 slaveholding States put together. 
 
 Look we to the manners, customs, social codes, 
 ami moral standards, of this section of country, 
 and we discover not le3S distinctly the signs and 
 workings of the " peculiar institution." Founded 
 as it is in violence, the relic of a barbarous age, 
 it brings forth fruits after its kind. Where it 
 flourishes, the duel, the practice of carrying arms, 
 of answering speeches with bludgeons, and of 
 settling disputes by the decisions of Judge Lynch, 
 are recognised and established institutions. These 
 are the streams whose fountain of bitter waters 
 is Slavery. As the system came from barbarism, 
 so thitherwards does it tend. That its progress 
 may be arrested ere it be too late, and that, 
 through the instrumentality of the highest type 
 of civilization which the world has seen, it may, 
 in the language of General Scott, be "amelio- 
 rated even to extermination," should be the 
 prayer of every lover of his country and of 
 humanity. 
 
 And, sir, now. when its trial hour has come, 
 and men, knowing not what they do, and strug- 
 gling blindly amid the difficulties and perils with 
 which it has encompassed them, arise, and in 
 the name of half of the States of the Union an- 
 nounce to their neighbors and to the world that 
 it is right and just, and therefore ought not only 
 to be perpetuated where it exists, but also ex- 
 tended over the whole country, and that, so far 
 as they have the power, it shall be — you will not 
 thiuk it strange if, rn the fullness of an unfalter- 
 ing conviction, and in all faithfulness, the people 
 of the free States warn them of their error, and 
 
 declare to them that their purposes cannot, must 
 not, be consummated. 
 
 Citizens of the free States — of the rugged North, 
 and of the teeming West ! as you look out upon 
 your magnificent cities, and countless thriving 
 villages, the great marts of traffic, and the ever- 
 busy haunts of honest industry — upon your 
 smiling farms and pleasant homes, at once the 
 sign and the achievement of free institutions, say, 
 are you prepared to cast them otf, that you may 
 enjoy in their place the " benefits and blessings " 
 of Slavery ? 
 
 I now proceed to the consideration of the ques- 
 tion — the practical question immediately before 
 the country — what are the designs and purposes 
 of the South, in reference to Slavery, and par- 
 ticularly to its extension? These have already 
 been stated generally ; but the inquiry is too im- 
 portant and vital to be dismissed without further 
 discussion. 
 
 From the extracts which I have made from 
 Southern writers, and which might be indefi- 
 nitely extended by quoting from the works of Cal- 
 houn and others, and from the speeches of South- 
 ern men in Congress, it sufficiently appears that 
 the prevailing doctrine at the South is, that 
 Slavery is a positive good, or, to use the lan- 
 guage of Mr. Fitzhugh, that the Southern people 
 have become satisfied that "Slavery is morally 
 rigkt,thai it will continue ever to exist, and that it is 
 as profitable as it is humane." The corollary from 
 this, that, being right, profitable, and humane, it 
 ought not to be restricted to any particular section 
 of country, but should be permitted to spread its 
 blessings far and wide, accords with the express 
 declarations and the avowed purposes of pro- 
 slavery men. They mean to make Slavery na- 
 tional, and not to stop in their work of propa- 
 gandism until they shall have carried it into all 
 the Territories — ay, and into all tue States in' 
 the Uxiox. A brief review of their movements 
 and doctrines will establish this position beyond 
 dispute. 
 
 Slavery, like everything founded in fraud and 
 wrong, is violent and aggressive. The condition 
 of its existence is aggression. Its dissolution 
 will commence, the moment its exterior bound- 
 aries are established. Let it be known that 
 Slavery in the United States can go no further, 
 and that moment its doom is sealed. It may lin- 
 ger in some localities for a long time, but it must 
 inevitably fall, and be supplanted. Give Slavery 
 no new fields to overrun and blast, and the sup- 
 ply of slave labor will soon exceed the demand. 
 Then it will become unprofitable, and finally bur- 
 densome, so that the owners will set themselves 
 at work to devise a way — and let us not doubt 
 that when there is a will, a safe and not difficult 
 way can be found — for its abolition. But this 
 must and will be in their own time, and by their 
 own methods. The South understands very well 
 that the existence of Slavery depends upon its 
 expansion, and it is for that reason that she is 
 making such superhuman efforts to extend it. 
 The gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Waknek] — 
 and who I understand and can well believe to ho 
 one of the first minds in his State — in an able 
 
speech made upon this floor a few weeks ago, 
 said : 
 
 " There is -not a slaveholder, in this House or 
 ' out of it, but who knows perfectly well, that, 
 ' whenever Slavery is confined within certain specified 
 ' limits, its future existence is doomed ; it is only a 
 1 question of time as to its final destruction. You 
 ' may take any single slaveholding county in the 
 ' Southern States, in which the great staples of 
 1 cotton and sugar are cultivated to any extent, 
 ' and confine the present slave population within 
 ' the limits of that county ; such is the rapid 
 ' natural increase of the slaves, and the. rapid ex- 
 ' haustion of the soil in the cultivation of those 
 ' crops, (which add so much to the commercial 
 ' wealth of the country,) that in a few years it 
 ' would be impossible to support them within the 
 ' limits of such county. Both master and slave 
 ' would be starved out. And what would be the 
 ' practical effect in any oue connty, the same 
 ' result- would happen to all the slaveholding 
 1 States. Slavery cannot be confined within cer- 
 ' tain specified limits, without producing the de- 
 ' struction of both master and slave. It requires 
 1 fresh lands, plenty <>/ wood and water, not only for 
 1 the comfort and happiness of the slave-, but for the 
 ' benefit of the owner. We understand perfectly 
 ' well the practical effect of the proposed restric- 
 ' tion upou our rights, and to what extent it inter- 
 ' feres with Slavery in the States ; and we also 
 ' understand the object and purpose of that inter- 
 ' ference. If the slaveholding States should ever 
 ' be so regardless of their rights and their honor, 
 ' as coequal States, to be willing to submit to 
 ' this proposed restriction, for the sake of har- 
 1 mony and peace, they could not do it. There 
 ' is a great, overruling, practical necessity, which 
 ' would prevent it. They ought not to submit to 
 1 it upou principle if they could, and could not if 
 ' they would." 
 
 Sir, here is the whole philosophy of Slavery. Do 
 we want such a blighting and consuming curse 
 nearer or closer to us than it is now ? And shall 
 any mere party considerations, the force of party 
 attachments, the desire of success, or the thirst 
 for office, induce any of us to so act and vote in 
 the coming elections as to invite to our Northern 
 fields the vulture which (if the representations 
 of the gentleman from Georgia may be relied 
 upon) is now preying upon the vitals of the 
 South? In confirmation of the views already 
 expressed in regard to the laws which govern the 
 system of Slavery', I would call your attention to 
 the fact, within the recollection of every mem- 
 ber, that about the year 1830 the subject of the 
 prospective and ultimate abolition of Slavery was 
 earnestly discussed in Virginia and some other 
 States. Prior to that time, for several years, 
 slave labor had been growing unprofitable. 
 Florida and Louisiana had been purchased many 
 years ; and it was not perceived that there were 
 other acquisitions likely to be made for the occu- 
 pation of Slavery. The slave market was over- 
 stocked, and slaveholders began to inquire what 
 they should do. Hence the movement of 1830 
 und 1831. But before any practical results were 
 reached, events transpired which induced South- 
 ern men to abandon their schemes of emancipa- I 
 
 tion, and, indeed, to speak of them as the frenzy 
 of fanaticism. 
 
 It has been frequently asserted that the inten- 
 tion of the South to abolish Slavery was thwart- 
 ed and defeated by the mad and ultra doctrines 
 and schemes of the Abolitionists. But a greater 
 mistake was never made. These were the excuse 
 for, but not the cause of, the change which came 
 over the Southern purpose. About the time of 
 this Abolition controversy, it will be remembered 
 that the Indians were removed from large por- 
 tions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, to 
 the West, and a vast and fertile country, well 
 adapted to the growing of cotton, was opened to 
 slave labor. At once there was a market for 
 slaves, the price appreciated, and the demand 
 was active. We heard no more about the great 
 and philanthropic work of emancipation. From 
 that time to the present, new fields for this kind 
 of labor have been acquired, the prices of slaves 
 have increased, and now the all but universal cry 
 iu the slave States is, not Abolition, but exten- 
 sion. 
 
 In 1844, it was thought desirable to annex 
 Texas. Mr. Calhoun considered this step indis- 
 pensable to the protection of Slavery. That the 
 work might be accomplished, Mr. Clay and Mr. 
 Van Buren were set aside in the Presidential 
 canvass, and Mr. Polk was elected. The annex- 
 ation was consummated, and with it came New 
 Mexico and California. The latter took care of 
 herself, and came into the Union against a bois- 
 terous and protracted opposition — thanks to the 
 glorious old man who then occupied the highest 
 place of power — as a free State. But the South, 
 with her eye steadily fixed upon the subjugation 
 of the Continent — for this thought already pos- 
 sessed her, and had controlled her action, when, 
 under the influence of Mr. Calhoun and the Nulli- 
 fiers, she was induced in 1845 to insist upon the 
 overthrow of Jacksonism In the Democratic 
 party — successfully demanded that Texas should 
 be permitted to be divided into five slave States, 
 and, as such, come into the Union ; and that 
 the Jeffersonian restriction should not be applied 
 to New Mexico and Utah. The Fugitive Slave 
 Law was enacted, not so much to secure the 
 return of runaway slaves, as to inform the North 
 that she had a master, and to make her feel that 
 henceforth her duty and her business would be 
 to submit. 
 
 Well, sir, in 1852, the Whig and Democratic 
 parties assembled in their Conventions at Balti- 
 more, and, under instructions from the slave 
 power, adopted platforms excluding from those 
 parties, respectively, all who would not unsay and 
 undo the words and deeds of a lifetime; scout 
 the Jeffersonian doctrine of Slavery restriction ; 
 and swallow, without choking, the infamies of 
 the Fugitive Slave Bill. This action was to be 
 a " finality" — the be-all and end-all of Slavery 
 agitation in the country ; a finality, said Cass s 
 a finality, sung Pierce ; a " finality of a totality," 
 roared Douglas. 
 
 •• ' Finality,' the woods, 
 ' Finality.' the floods, 
 
 ' Finality,' the rocks and hollow mountains run?," 
 
 and as a finality these " peace measures 1 " were 
 
sustained and endorsed. But, sir, Slavery has 
 no finalities — she can have none but the finality 
 of the tomb. And so (as might have been ex- 
 pected) the South came forward in 1854, and de- 
 manded that the landmark of Freedom established 
 in 1820, at so great loss to the North, should be 
 obliterated. Why 1 Simply and purely for the 
 gain of Slavery — a gain to be secured in this 
 way. Remove the barrier that excludes Slavery- 
 from Kansas and Nebraska, and it can go there, 
 and, with the effort which Missouri is prepared 
 to make, will go there. Besides, it was said the 
 principle will be recognised, that Slavery is right 
 in itself; for, if wrong, why remove an obstruc- 
 tion to its progress ? Why take steps and ini- 
 tiate measures to make its introduction to free 
 territory easy, if not inevitable ? Why move at 
 all? 
 
 Without action, Slavery was shut out of the 
 Territories. By solemn compact, it had been 
 agreed between North and South that it should 
 never be admitted there ; but Slavery is so right 
 and just, that even barriers must be broken down, 
 and compacts violated, in order that it may be 
 extended. This outrage, too, was not wanting 
 a pretext; and this was the shallow, swindling 
 doctrine of popular sovereignty — a most false 
 and dishonest doctrine when applied to Territo- 
 ries, as has been proved a thousand times. It 
 was the Cass, Pierce, and Douglas doctrine, and 
 served its purpose. Upon its plausibilities, North- 
 ern members, who only desired an excuse for 
 their treachery, were ready to repose. And thus 
 the measure — one of the most flagitious in the 
 annals of crime — was carried — the Senator from 
 Michigan shouting Io Peans to " squatter sover- 
 eignty." 
 
 In virtue of this new doctrine, the people of the 
 Territories, you know, -were to manage their own 
 affairs in their own way. They were to have 
 Slavery, or not, as they should decide for them- 
 selves. No sooner, however, did it appear to 
 Atchison and the delegates of the slave power 
 that, notwithstanding the efforts of their secret 
 organizations, Kansas was likely to be settled by 
 a majority or Free State men, than measures were 
 taken at once, we may now believe with the 
 knowledge and complicity of the President, to 
 prevent the people of Kansas from determining 
 this question for themselves. Thousands of 
 men were sent from Missouri to control the elec- 
 tions of the Territory. You know how, and how 
 successful they were. The Governor, who was 
 suspected of a desire to see fair play, was re- 
 moved; and one of the most detestable characters 
 in America, who had earned the position by his 
 vote on the Nebraska bill and other kindred ser- 
 vices, was appointed in his place ; and I »m not 
 aware that he has in any way disappointed the 
 expectations of his principals, the conspirators 
 against Kansas. The people of this unhappy 
 Territory, liberty-loving, law-abiding men, when 
 they were overborne by the invaders from Mis- 
 souri, driven from the polls, and denied the exer- 
 cise of their legal rights under the organic act of 
 the Territory, resorted to the plain and peaceable 
 remedy open to them under the Constitution, 
 and took the proper steps to be admitted into 
 
 the Union under such a State Constitution as tha 
 people themselves preferred. 
 
 And for these crimes alone, of being unwilling 
 to be governed by others, and of preferring free 
 to slave institutions, the people of Missouri, of 
 Georgia, of South Carolina, and other slave 
 States, have been sent there to reduce and de- 
 stroy them with fire and sword ; and the Presi- 
 dent, so far from interfering to save them, as 
 was his sacred duty, has employed against them 
 the civil and military power of the country. 
 When infuriated mobs, paid from the treasure of 
 the American people, have driven children from 
 their homes at midnight, fired upon defenceless 
 and unoffending women, and shot down our 
 brothers in cold blood, destroyed their dwellings, 
 and sacked and devastated their cities, the Presi- 
 dent of the United States— through his officials 
 in Kansas, whose conduct he has never rebuked — 
 looked calmly on, uttering no word of sym- 
 pathy, and lifting no arm of protection. Thus 
 has ended the shameful lesson of popular sover- 
 eignty. And now, sir, its fallacies and cheats 
 are acknowledged and vaunted everywhere: and 
 the unmitigated Southern doctrine, that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States carries and pro- 
 tects Slavery in all the Territories, is adopted in 
 substance at Cincinnati as the foundation-stone 
 of Democracy. One step more remains to be 
 taken, and that follows logically from the last — 
 it is, that under the Constitution of the United 
 States Slavery may exist in, and cannot by any 
 power be excluded from, the several States. 
 
 Thus, Mr. Chairman, have passed away, one 
 after another, the excuses and apologies under 
 which Northern men have attempted to shelter 
 themselves, as the demands of the oligarchy 
 have grown larger and more importunate. The 
 Wilmot proviso is denounced and spurned by all 
 who profess to act, at the present time, with the 
 Democratic party. The doctrine of "popular 
 sovereignty," so rife two years ago, is an unbid- 
 den guest, and know3 not where to sit down in 
 the house of its friends. Even its author recog- 
 nises not his own bantling, maimed and dis- 
 figured as it has been by its nurses, wet and dry. 
 He plunges and flounders in confusions and ab- 
 surdities"' as inexplicable as they are ludicrous, 
 and ouly extricates himself from his difficulties 
 by discovering that he always knew the Heir Ap- 
 parent. Indeed, did he not always understand 
 that " squatter sovereignty" and " State equali- 
 ty" were practically the same thing? and did ho 
 not tell his Southern friends oft and many times 
 that the right of Missouri to govern Kansas was 
 not only consistent with, but was in fact the 
 very life and nerve of his great invention? "By 
 the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye." 
 Of the ultimate purposes of the slave power 
 the North can no longer be ignorant, and to 
 nothing but her own criminal indifference or 
 complicity will their accomplishment, if accom- 
 plished they shall be, be chargeable. And let it 
 not be said, "There is no danger; you have al- 
 ready shown the superior strength and advan- 
 tages of the North." There is danger; and it is 
 from the comparative strength of the North and 
 weakness of the South, paradoxical as it may 
 
8 
 
 / 
 
 seem, that it results. The vigor and freedom 
 of the Northern mind, its Activity and constant 
 occupation in every department of labor and in- 
 quiry, leave it hut little time for political con- 
 tr.n-ers.es and little taste for partisan strifes: 
 while in the South the interests, feelings, and 
 thoughts of the privileged classes an: bound up 
 in politics alone, and mainly those which hav. 
 regard to the possession of power for the security 
 and propagation of Slavery. 
 
 A Senator from Virginia [.Mr. Mason] said a 
 few weeks ago, that the slave power was strong 
 because it was the power of truth ; and hence il 
 was, that, although the Southern Senators and 
 Kepresentatives are a minority in these flails 
 their policy is predominant in Congress amJ „ 
 country. The South-such was the argument- 
 is always right, and therefore is always victori- 
 ous. Sir, the Russian Autocrat is strong Is it 
 because his power is established in truth and 
 righteousness, or that the pillars of his throne 
 are aid in the foundations of justice? The 
 Holy Alliance" was strong; but was it the 
 power of truth that "crushed out" Poland 
 /subdued" Hungary, and enslaved Italy? No' 
 it was the power of wrong and injustice— a 
 power, in its origin, character, and exercise 
 akin to that wielded by the slaveholders of the 
 South. Their power, like that of the Autocrat 
 is exercised by a single will; it is supreme iu 
 nfteen States of the Union; it is a reliable 
 power, for its instincts and necessities never per- 
 mit if. to falter for a moment. It is sharp to per- ' 
 ceive its own weakness, and watchful to keep in 
 constant organization its entire forces. It brings 
 so many votes into Congress— no more, no less • 
 so many to national conventions, so manv to 
 the electoral colleges, for a single purpose-a 
 single interest. It constructs the platforms and 
 nominates the candidates in all "national" con- 
 ventions, gives the shibboleth to the "national" 
 press, and makes the laws for the nation This 
 it does by the unity, directness, and persistence 
 with which it acts. "The thunder," says Schil- 
 er spread out into its separate tones, becomes a 
 lullaby for children; send it forth in one quick 
 peal, and the royal sound shall move the 
 
 u Ven , S ,Vu- SuCh i3 the P mver of concentration. 
 
 If a \Vhig party practically reject the test of 
 national othodoxy as tendered by its Southern 
 members, and refuse, after years of concessions 
 to clothe itself in the very rags of shame and 
 moral cowardice, it is at onee abandoned by 
 them as an organization no longer useful, and 
 no longer "national." J 
 
 The Democratic party may be in power for ' 
 many years, but no man in it shall dare quote 
 without explanation, the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, or breathe in the faintest whisper an i 
 aspiration for liberty, but upon pain of being 
 excommunicated, nicknamed, and blackguarded 
 He will be an outlaw in his own land, ineligible ; 
 to the humblest station in its service, if he is 
 supposed to doubt in his heart that Slavery is a ! 
 blessing, or that the shooting of women and the 
 burning of towns in Kansas, for the sake of ex- 
 tending it, ; are net good works, worthy of all 
 
 commendation as the latest manifestation of the 
 .power of t; uth ! 
 
 And thus it is, Mr. Chairman, that the s'ave 
 power has come to be formidable and danger- 
 ous. Representing only two-fifths of the peo- 
 ple, but being a unit in its action, and sovenud 
 by k single aim. it has been able to shape the 
 policy and wield the p tronage. of the Govern- 
 ment. With a purpose steady and consistent, a 
 ""-n bold ami threatening, instant to excite 
 feus and alarms, and prompt to eocouritge 
 hopes, by holding out the bones of office and 
 patronage, it has terrified and attracted to its 
 ranks thousands of the timid, the easy, !tnf | tne 
 venal, in the Northern States— enough to secure 
 its control of the Government. But, sir, thank 
 God! these allies are not ail to be depended 
 upon by the slave power. While their ranks 
 contain the doughfaces and cowboys of politics, 
 they hold also men who have good feelings ami 
 honest instincts; who prefer the right To the 
 wrong; men yvho have been controlled by their 
 party ties, and kept in submission to party re- 
 quirements, in the hope of better things by and 
 by. niese men, finding that all hope of im- 
 provement is vain, and perceiving at length 
 what the true designs of this power are, will 
 withdraw from it their support, and hencefor- 
 ward give their influence and their suffrages for 
 the party which, representing the ideas and policy 
 of Washington and Jefferson, is in truth and in 
 fact the only national and Union party in the 
 country. J 
 
 Of this party, by whatever name it may h e 
 known, the Free State party, the People's party 
 or the Republican party, and of its call and mis- 
 sion^, I beg to speak a icw words. 
 
 When the Nebraska bill was passod, men be- 
 gan to tear that it was the purpose of a great ma- 
 jority of the people of the South, of both parties 
 to make the Government subservient to the one 
 idea of Slavery ; that it was not the Constitution 
 tor which they cared, unless it should be made 
 to read in favor of human bondage, that the 
 Union was valuable in their estimation only so 
 far as it could protect property in unman beings 
 But when it became known that the pretexts and 
 apolog.es for this bill were Bhamelessly repu- 
 diated by those who demanded its passage, and 
 ■ that their fixed determination was to plant 
 Slavery in the Territories at all hazards ; and 
 when Kansas was invaded by "border ruffians" 
 whose "horrid deeds were blown in every eye" 
 they became fully persuaded, each man 'in "his 
 | own mind, that one of two ihings must happen— 
 .either Slavery would become national, and its 
 Care the paramount interest in the length and 
 breadth of the country, and finis a galling ami 
 relentless tyranny be set up. which could oary 
 terminate in disunion, or, sadder still, in a base 
 and cowardly submission by the free States 
 which should precedeand Invite the transforma- 
 tion of the Government from a republic ot freemen 
 lo a slaveholding oligarchy ; or else, that all true 
 and courageous men, all the faithful votaries of 
 liberty and equal rights, whether Whigs, Demo- 
 crats, or Americans, would unite to inaugurate 
 a party upon the principles of the Declaration 
 
of Independence, for the maintenance of (he I Mr. Shorti.r, of Alabama, said, a few months 
 Lunstittuion, and the preservation of the fjnion, 'ago: 
 
 lu ail us strength and all its glory. Such a party 
 has been called into existence; and,sir,it would 
 be treason to Libert}- and Humanity to question 
 4 Its ultimate triumph. It has uplifted the flag of 
 the Union, tor that is the " flag of the free heart's 
 home;" and may it be! It keeps step to the 
 music of the Union, for that is inspired by the 
 immortal harmonies of Liberty. 
 
 The Pro-Slavery party, at their recent Con- 
 vention at Cincinnati, resolved, among other 
 things : 
 
 " That claiming fellowship with and desiring 
 the co-operation of all who regard the preser- 
 vation of the Union, under the Constitution, as 
 the paramount issue, and repudiating all sec- 
 tional parties and platforms concerning domes- 
 tic Slavery, which seek to embroil the States 
 and incite to treason and armed resistance to 
 law in the Territories, and whose avowed pur- 
 poses, if consummated, must end in civil war 
 1 and disunion, the American Democracy recog- 
 ' nise and adopt the principles contained in the 
 ' organic laws establishing the Territories of Kan- 
 ' sas and Nebraska, as embodyingthe only sound 
 ' and sale solution of the Slavery question, upon 
 ' which the great national idea of the people of 
 ' this whole country can repose, in its determined 
 ' conservatism of the Union — non-interference 
 1 by Congress with Slavery iu States and Ter- 
 • ritories," &c. 
 
 '•Desiring the co-operation of all who regard 
 the preservation of the Union, under the Constitu- 
 tion, as the paramount issue." Certainly they 
 could say this, because, in the Southern view, 
 the Constitution gives the Territories to Slavery; 
 and the Southern, as everybody knows, i3 now 
 the Democratic view. The "paramount issue " 
 is the preservation of the Uuion, under and be- 
 cause of a Constitution which, the South insists, 
 | protects and extends Slavery ; but under any 
 other Constitution — such, for instance, as that 
 established by our fathers to '• secure the bless- 
 i ings of liberty" — the preservation of the Union 
 is not a " paramount issue." The true reading of 
 i the quotation is this: ''Desiring the co-opera- 
 I tion of all who regard the advantage and prop- 
 ; agation of Slavery as the paramount issue," &c 
 ' That 1 am not mistaken in this interpretation, 
 allow me to give some extracts from speeches of 
 i members of Congress at the present session, some 
 of whom were iu the convention, and voted for 
 this resolution. And first I will quote from Mr. 
 ) Mc.Mullin, ol Virginia: 
 
 " And I tell you, sir, and I want the country 
 ' to know it — I want the gentlemen from the free 
 ' States, our Republicans, our Seward Repub- 
 ' licans our Abolitionists, or whatever else they 
 ' may be called, to know it — that if you restore 
 ' the Missouri Compromise, or repeal the Fugitive 
 ' Slave Law, this Union will be dissolved." 
 Mr. Mc.Mullin at the same time added : 
 "I hope that if any gentleman deems I do not 
 
 "We tell you plainly that we take issue with 
 'you; and whenever \ou repeal the Fugitive 
 : Slave Law, ou refuse to admit a State on account 
 ' of Slavery in her Constitution, ou our equality in 
 ' the Ttrritories is sacrificed by an act of Congress, 
 ' then the star of this Uuion will go down to 
 
 ' RISE NO MORE. 
 
 " Should we be forced to dissolve the Union, 
 ' in order to preserve Southern institutions and 
 ' Southern civilization, we will do it in peace if 
 ' we can ; in war if we must ; and let the God 
 ' of Battles decide between us." 
 
 South Carolina, through one of her Represent- 
 atives, [Mr. Boyce,] declares as follows : 
 
 "That party which places itself upon the posi- 
 ' tion of giving power to the North will eventu- 
 ' ally succeed ; and when that party does succeed, 
 ' in my opinion, the Union will be at an end." 
 
 The North, according to Mr. Boyce, although 
 a majority of the States and of the people, has 
 no right to power. Speaking through another Rep- 
 resentative, [Mr. Keitt,] the same State admon- 
 ishes us thus : 
 
 " Let the North refuse admission to a State 
 ' because of Slavery in her Constitution, and the 
 ' history of this Union is closed." 
 And the same gentleman adds : 
 '• The South should establish in the platform 
 ' the principle, that the right of a Southern man 
 1 to his slaves is equal, in its length and breadth, 
 ' to the right of a Northern man to his horse. She 
 ' should make the recognition of the right, full, 
 ' complete, and indisputable." 
 
 Or, in other words, should insist upon the 
 principle, that if a citizen of Maine may take his 
 horse to South Carolina, and hold it there as 
 property, the citizen of South Carolina may as 
 well take his slave into Maine as property. This 
 results from the Southern doctine, now so pop- 
 ular, of the " equality of the States." 
 
 But, sir, I am not driven to rely upon the test- 
 imony of members of Congress upon this point 
 The same sentiments have been avuwed in South- 
 ern Democratic conventions — as witness the fol- 
 lowing, given as a sample, from the resolutions 
 of a convention in Mississippi, on the 8th of Jan- 
 uary last : 
 
 " That the passage by Congress of any law 
 ' abolishing Slavery In the District of Columbia, 
 ' or prohibiting the slave trade between the 
 ' States, or prohibiting Slavery in the Territories, or 
 ' other places subject to the laws of Congress, or 
 ' the refusal of Congress to admit a State into the 
 ' Union because its Constitution recognises Slave- 
 ' ry, would atl'ord evidence of a fixed and deliber- 
 ' ate design, on the part of that body, to impair, 
 ' weaken, and finally destroy the institution of 
 ' Slavery in the States, ' would be such a viola- 
 ' tion of our rights as would amount to intoler- 
 ' able oppression, and justify a resort to measures 
 ' of resistance." " 
 
 According to this, if CiTngress should attempt 
 
 ' properly represent the state of public feeling in • to do now, what for sixty years it did with? 
 
 ' the South, he will correct me." out objection, measures of resistance will be just- 
 
 And no member has ever disclaimed the sen- ified. That the above extracts exp re s the pre- 
 
 •tim&nte imputed to the South. i vailine Southern doctrine, without respect to 
 
10 
 
 party, I cite the following resolution recently- 
 adopted by an American State convention in 
 Alabama : 
 
 "Resolved, That in view of the increased dan- 
 1 gers that threaten the institutions of the South, 
 ' this convention deems it necessary to, and does 
 ' hereby, re-endorse and adopt the following reso- 
 ' lution, known as the Georgia platform, to wit : 
 1 That the State of Alabama, in the judgment of 
 ' this convention, will and ought to resist, (as a 
 ' last resort,) to a disruption of every tie which 
 1 binds her to the Union, any action of Congress 
 ' upon the subject of Slavery in the District of 
 ' Columbia, or in places subject to the jurisdic- 
 1 tion of Congress, incompatible with the safety, 
 ' the domestic tranquillity, the rights and honor 
 ' of the slaveholding States; or any act sup- 
 ' pressing the slave trade between the slavehold- 
 ' ing States ; or any refusal to admit, as a State, 
 ' any Territory applying, because of the exist- 
 1 ence of Slavery therein; or an;/ act prohibiting 
 ' the introduction of slaves into the Territories ; or 
 ' any act repealing, or materially modifying, the 
 1 laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive 
 1 slaves." 
 
 I now proceed, sir, with my reading of the 
 Cincinnati resolution : " repudiating all sectional 
 platforms and parties " — yes, sir, even as Caesar 
 repudiated the "kingly crown," or as Russia re- 
 pudiated Poland, or as Mr. Buchanan would re- 
 pudiate Cuba. The ideas and principles of a 
 party, I have always supposed, rather than the 
 residence of its members, determines the qnestion 
 whether it is, or not, a sectional party. Tried 
 by this standard, the Democratic party, which 
 knows no test but Slavery, is undeniably a sec- 
 tional party, and nothing else. " Which seeks 
 to embroil the States ; " as this Democratic, Pro- 
 Slavery party has embroiled them, by the repeal 
 of the Missouri compromise, and its machina- 
 tions to spread Slavery over the Territories, 
 whether the people wanted it or not ; " and incite 
 to treason," ay, sir, in the high as well as low 
 places of the land. ''And armed resistance to 
 law in the Territories;" this means, that the 
 Cincinnati Convention gives the stamp of its ap- 
 probation to the handiwork of Atchison and his 
 marauders, and recognises, as the laws of Kan- 
 sas, the pretended enactments of a Legislature 
 of Missourians, sitting in that Territory. The 
 convention has no censure for the people of Mis- 
 souri, and other slaves States, for their forays 
 upon Kansas, and no sympathy for the wrongs 
 of the people of that outraged Territory. Nay, 
 sir, it virtually approves and justifies them all, 
 and takes upon itself the burden and the infamy 
 of transactions scarcely paralleled in the most 
 barbarous ages of the world. 
 
 Sir, this platform is intensely, defiantly sec- 
 tional. In all the resolutions there is no word 
 in behalf of that great section which desires 
 Kansas to be free — none. So far from this, they 
 virtually take from it what never has been chal- 
 lenged before. Read the following resolution : 
 
 " That we recognise the right of the people of 
 1 all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebras- 
 ' ka, acting through the fairly-expressed will of 
 ' the majoritv of actual residents, and whenever 
 
 ' the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to 
 ' form a Constitution, with or without domestic 
 ' Slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon 
 ' terras of perfect equality with the other States." 
 
 As you- will perceive, it studiously fails to 
 " recognise the right of the people of the Terri- 
 tories" to pass laws, while under a Territorial 
 form of Government, for the inhibition of Slavery. 
 This right, which was the doctrine of popular 
 sovereignty two years ago, as advocated by Cass 
 and Douglas, is now ignored. The South has 
 carried her point ; for, give her the right to oc- 
 cupy the Territories with slaves until they shall 
 have a sufficient population, according to her 
 rule, to justify their admission as States, and she 
 is sure that Slavery will be too firmly planted in 
 them ever to be disturbed. But, not only does 
 the convention repudiate popular sovereignty as 
 heretofore understood in the North, but it repeals, 
 so far as a National Democratic Platform can 
 repeal, the Slavery restriction upon Minnesota, 
 Oregon, and Washington. 
 
 Such, in substance, is the Democratic platform 
 on the Slavery question. Such doctrines would 
 have seemed strange five years ago, but they are 
 now the very essence of Democracy. That they 
 are embraced and maintained by the Democratic 
 nominee is certain. Upon this point we were 
 authoritatively advised a few weeks ago, by the 
 honorable gentleman from the Berks district, in 
 Pennsylvania, [Mr. Jo.vks,] who is the champion 
 of Mr. Buchanan in this House. He removed all 
 doubts, if any existed, as to this gentleman's 
 fidelity to the slave power. Speaking of any 
 possible objections to Mr. Buchanan, in this di- 
 rection, he said : 
 
 " They are answered by the fact that, twenty 
 ' years ago, in the Senate of the United States, 
 ' he was among the first Northern men to resist 
 ' the inroads of Abolitionism. 
 
 "They are answered by his opposition to 
 ' the circulation of insurrectionary documents 
 ' through the mails of the United States among 
 ' the slaves of the South. 
 
 " They are answered by his determined sup- 
 ' port of the bill admitting Arkansas into the 
 ' American Union. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " They are answered by his early support of 
 ' the annexation of Texas. 
 
 " They are answered by his persevering sup- 
 ' port of the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 " They are answered by his energetic efforts 
 ' to effect the repeal of the law of the State of 
 ' Pennsylvania, denying to the Federal authori- 
 ' ties the use of her prisons for the detention of 
 ' fugitive slaves. 
 
 " They are answered by his early and unyielding 
 ' opposition to the Wilmot proviso. 
 
 ******* 
 
 "They are answered by every vote he gave 
 ' in the American Congress on the question of 
 ' Slavery ; and by the fact, that of all Northern 
 ' men, he has been among the most prominent in 
 ' asserting and defending a strict construction of 
 ' the Federal Constitution." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " They are answered by the resolutions adopt- 
 
11 
 
 4 ed by the last Democratic State Convention of 
 1 Pennsylvania, and accepted and endorsed by 
 ' Mr. Buchanan on Thursday, the 8th of May, in 
 the following language : 
 
 "'The duties of the President, whomsoever he 
 ' may be, have been clearly and ably indicated 
 ' by the admirable resolutions of the convention 
 4 which you have just presented to me ; and all 
 4 of which, without reference to those merely per- 
 ' sonal to myself, / heartily adopt. Indeed, they 
 4 met my cordial approbation from the moment when 
 4 I first perused them on the other side of the Atlan- 
 4 tic. They constitute a platform broad, national, 
 4 and conservative, and one eminently worthy 
 4 of the Democracy of our great and good old 
 4 Stat.-.' " 
 
 Among the resolutions thus accepted and en- 
 dorsed by Mr. Buchanan are these : 
 
 " Resolved, That, in the repeal of the act known 
 ' as the Missouri Compromise Act, and the pas- 
 4 sage of the act organizing the Territories of 
 4 Kansas and Nebraska, free from unconstitu- 
 4 tional restrictions, the lasl Congress performed 
 4 a work of patriotic sacrifice in meeting the demands 
 > 4 of sectional excitement by unshaken adherence to the 
 • ' fundamental law. 
 
 " Resolved, That this legislation cannot be deemed 
 ' unnecessary, but that it was expedient to meet 
 ' the questions of which it disposed, and which 
 1 could never admit of a more easy settlement 
 i ' than at present. That we recognise in it the 
 ; application to the Territories of the United 
 States of the rule of ' equal and exact justice 
 to all men,' of all sections of the Confederacy, 
 which was designed by the framers of our Gov- 
 ernment, and which was defined as one of its 
 essential principles by the immortal Jefferson." 
 From the first of these resolutions we learn 
 '. ;hat Mr. Buchanan regards the repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise as a patriotic work, required 
 ; Dy the Constitution; or, as the resolution ex- 
 Dresses it, " the fundamental law." And from 
 .he second, taken in connection with his endorse 
 nent, it may be inferred that he accepts the 
 Southern doctrine of " equality of the States," 
 is defined by Mr. Keitt, in the extract I have 
 ead from his speech. 
 That there may be no doubt as to the extreme 
 iiro-slavery character of the Cincinnati platform, 
 ipon which Mr. Buchanan stands, I quote the 
 opinion of the highest authority upon that point, 
 ienator Douglas, in a despatch to a member of 
 <:he convention, wrote thus : 
 
 "Washington, June 5, 1856 — 9 A. M. 
 
 • " Dear Sir : I have just read so much of the 
 platform as relates to the Nebraska bill and 
 
 , Slavery question. The adoption of that noble 
 resolution, by the unanimous vote of all the States, 
 accomplishes all the objects I had in view in 
 permitting my name to be used before the con- 
 
 ] vention." 
 
 ' After this, Mr. Buchanan's position upon the 
 ; lavery question cannot be regarded as equivo- 
 il. Nor can we wonder that a platform so ultra 
 ro-Slavery and Anti-Democratic was adopted. 
 | . was required, not more by the claims of the 
 r ave power, than by a regard for the opinions 
 
 and antecedents of the candidate. How, let me 
 ask, could a more suitable platform have been 
 constructed for one who, forty years ago, (if com- 
 mon fame report truly,) declared that if he had 
 "a drop of Democratic blood in his veins, he 
 would let it out;" or who, twenty-five years 
 later, in the Senate of the United States, advo- 
 cated a particular monetary policy, upon the 
 ground, and for the reason, in part, that it would 
 tend to reduce the wages of American labor to 
 the rates of European labor ? 
 
 Sir, I have just read that Mr. Buchanan, in his 
 speech to the Philadelphia Keystone Club, de- 
 clared that he accepted and cordially approved 
 the Cincinnati Platform, Pro-Slavery and foreign- 
 policy parts, and all. No doubt of it. 
 
 And now, before passing finally from this res- 
 olution, (as Mr. Buchanan adopts the whole of 
 it,) it may not be impertinent to inquire as to his 
 understanding of the language "claiming the 
 fellowship of," &c. Does he claim the fellowship 
 of the Democrats of the war of 1812 — the Madi- 
 sonian Democrats ; and, if so, upon what ground ? 
 Of the Administration of Mr. Madison, and of the 
 war, he spoke as follows, in a Fourth of July 
 oration, in 1815 : 
 
 " Time will not allow me to enumerate all the 
 ' other wild and wicked projects of this Admin- 
 ' istration. Suffice it to say, that, after they had 
 ' deprived us of the means of defence, by destroy- 
 ' ing our Navy and disbanding our Army; after 
 ' they had taken away from us the power of recruit- 
 ' ing them, by ruining commerce, the great source 
 4 of our national and individual wealth ; after 
 ' they had, by refusing the Bank of the United 
 ' States a continuance of its charter, embarrassed 
 4 the financial concerns of the Government, and 
 ' withdrawn the only universal paper medium of 
 ' the country from circulation ; after the people 
 ' had become unaccustomed to, and of course 
 ' unwilling to bear taxation, and without money 
 4 in the Treasury, they rashly plunged us into a 
 ' war with a nation more able to do us injury 
 ' than any other in the world. What was the 
 ' dreadful necessity for this desperate measure ? 
 ' Was our country invaded ? No. Was it to pro- 
 ' tect our little remaining commerce from the 
 ' injuries it sustained by the Orders in Council? 
 ' No. Commerce was no such a favorite, and the 
 ' merchants wished for no war on that account." 
 Does he claim the fellowship of our adopted 
 fellow-citizens ? It cannot be upon the strength 
 of the following portions of the same oration : 
 " To secure this foreign feeling has been the 
 labor of their leaders for more than twenty 
 years ; and well have they been paid for their 
 trouble, for it has been one of the principal 
 causes of introducing and continuing them in 
 power. Immediately before the war, this for- 
 eign influence had completely embodied itself 
 with the majority, particularly at the West.; 
 and its voice was heard so loud at the seat of 
 Government, that President Madison was obliged 
 either to yield to its dictates, or retire from 
 office. The choice was easily made by a man 
 who preferred his private interests to the pub- 
 lic good, and he therefore hurried us into war 
 utterly unprepared." 
 
12 
 
 " We ought to use every honest exertion to turn 
 ' out of power those weak and wicked men whose 
 'wild and visionary theories have been tested 
 ' and found wanting. Above all, we ought to 
 ' drive from our shores foreign influence, and 
 ' cherish American feeling. Foreign influence 
 ' has been in every age the curse of Republics — 
 ' its jaundiced eye sees everybody in false col- 
 ' ors — the thick atmosphere oi prejudice, by which 
 ' it is ever surrounded, excluding from its sight 
 ' the light of reason. Let us then learn wisdom 
 ' from experience, and forever banish this fiend 
 ' from our society." 
 
 I have understood that he and his friends 
 claim special fellowship with the old Henry Clay 
 Whigs. Is this because of his connection with 
 the long-since-exploded calumny of " bargain 
 and corruption ?" Are the old friends of Henry 
 Clay to feel a peculiar nearness to James Bu- 
 chanan, who did Mr. Clay the greatest injury it 
 was possible for one public man to do another? 
 This history is found at length in Golton's biog- 
 raphy of Mr. Clay, to which I would commend the 
 lifetime friends of the "great commoner." 
 
 General Jackson, in a letter to Carter Beverly, 
 dated June 6, 1827, gives some account of Mr. 
 Buchanan's part in these transactions. In this 
 letter, he says : 
 
 " Early in January, 1825, a member of Con- 
 ' gress of high respectability visited me one morn- 
 ' ing, and observed that he had a communication 
 ' he was desirous to make to me ; that he was in- 
 ' formed there was a great intrigue going on, and 
 4 that it was right 1 should be informed of it ; that 
 ' he came as a friend, and let me receive the com- 
 ' munication as I might, the friendly motives 
 ' through which it was made, he hoped, would 
 ' prevent any change of friendship or feeling in 
 ' regard to him. To which I replied, from his 
 ' high standing as a gentleman and a member of 
 ' Congress, and from his uniform friendly and 
 ' gentlemanly conduct toward myself, I could not 
 ' suppose he would make any communication to 
 ' me which he supposed was improper. There- 
 ' fore, his motives being pure, let me think as I 
 ' might of the communication, my feelings to- 
 ' ward him would remain unaltered. The gen- 
 ' tleman proceeded : he said he had been inform- 
 1 ed. by the friends of Mr. Clay, thai the friends 
 1 of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, say- 
 1 ing. if .Mr. Clay and his friends would unite in 
 ' aid of Mr. Adams's election, Mr. Clay should be 
 cretary Of State ; that the friends of Mr. Ad- 
 ■ amq were urging, us a reason to induce the 
 ' friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposi- 
 ' tioii. that it I were elected President. Mr. Adams 
 ' would be continued .Secretary of State — (innu- 
 ' endo, there would be no room for Kentucky;) 
 ' that the friends of Mr. Clay stated the West did 
 ' not wish to separate trom the West, and if I 
 ' would say, or permit any of my confidential 
 ' friends to say, that, in case I were elected I'le.-i- 
 ' dent, Mr. Adams should not be continued Sec- 
 ' retary of State, by a complete union of Mr. Clay 
 1 and his friends, they would put an end to tin Pres- 
 ' idential contest in one hour; and he was of opin- 
 ' ion it was right to fight such intriguers with their 
 4 owu weapons." 
 
 Mr. Clay, in a speech delivered at Lexington, 
 July 12, 1827, thought the General ought to have 
 rendered the "distinguished member" a little 
 more distinguished by ordering him from his pres- 
 ence. He said : 
 
 " A man who, if he is a member of the lion-" 
 ' of Representatives, is doubly infamous — infamous 
 ' for the advice which he gave, and infamous for 
 ' his willingness to connive at the corruption of 
 ' the body of which he is a sworn member — is 
 ' the credible witness by whom General Jackson 
 ' stands ready to establish the corruption of men 
 ' whose characters are never questioned 1" 
 
 Mr. Webster shrewdly suspected who General 
 Jackson's informant was; and in a letter to Mr. 
 Clay, dated Boston, July 24, 1S27, wrote: 
 
 '• 1 have a suspicion that the respectable member 
 ' of Cultures* is Mr. Buchanan. If this should turn 
 ' out so, it w ill place him in an awkward situation, 
 ' since it seems he did recommend a bargain with 
 1 your friends, On the suspicion that such a bargain 
 ' had been [proposed to them on the part of friends 
 ' of Mr. Adams. I am curious to see how this mat- 
 ' ter will develop itself." 
 
 The atmosphere was becoming too hot for Mr. 
 Buchanan, and on the 8th of August of the same 
 year he wrote a letter to the Lancaster Journal 
 acknowledging that he was the member of Con- 
 gress referred to by General Jackson — indeed, I 
 think the General had already, in some subsequent 
 letter to that of the Oth of June, disclosed his 
 name — and substantially denying General Jack- 
 son's version of the interview. From this letter I 
 make the following extract: 
 
 " When the editor of the United S/avi Tele-* 1 
 1 graph, on the 12th of October last, asked me 
 ' by letter for information upon this subject, I 
 ' promptly informed him by the returning mail, 
 ' on the 16th of that month, that 1 had no au- 
 ' thority from Mr. ('lay. or hL> friends, to propose 
 ■ any terms to General Jackson, in relation to 
 ' their votes ; nor did I ever make any such prop- 
 ' osition." 
 
 Whether Mr. Buchanan's claim to the fellow- 
 ship of the Oid Whigs will be allowed by them, 
 is a question which they will answer for them- 
 selves, and I have but little doubt that the answer 
 will lie such as ought to be given in rc-poiise to 
 such a request. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, the portions of the platform re- 
 ferring to the foreign policy of the country are 
 i as objectionable and even more alarming than 
 those which relate to its domestic a Hairs. They 
 are in sari materia, and look to the same objectf 
 namely, the enlargement, of the area of Slavery 
 within the boundaries of the United States — the I 
 latter by pushing Slavery over lite Territories, and 
 the former by the acquisition of Cuba, and por- 
 tion-, it may be, of Central America and Mexico, 
 by purchase, or their forcible seizure by the arms 
 of the I'nited States, directly, or through t!u : 
 agency of the buccaneering policy avowed at Cin- 
 cinnati, and blown in the face of the civilized 
 world. The filibustering resolutions of the Dem- 
 ocratic Convention must be read and interpreted 
 in the light of the doings of the celebrated Ustend , 
 Conference. J 
 
 Here is one of the resolutions: 
 
13 
 
 "Resolved, That the Democratic party will ex- 
 ' pect ofthenext Administration, that every proper 
 1 effort will be made to insure our ascendency in the 
 1 Gulf of J/i xico. and to maintain a permanent pro- 
 ' lection to the great outlets through which are 
 S emptied into its waters the products raised out 
 of the soil, and the commodities created by the 
 : industry of the people of our Western valleys, 
 and of the Union at large." 
 
 If any one doubts that this means Cuba cer- 
 tainly, and other acquisitions probably, let him 
 read the official report of that Conference, made 
 on the 18th of October, 1854, and as he reads 
 bear in mind that James Buchanan, whose name 
 appears thereto, is the man whom the Democracy 
 hope to place at the head of the next Administra- 
 tion, and that his associates at that Conference 
 were Messrs. John Y. Mason and Pierre Soul6. 
 
 From this report, made by Messrs. Buchanan, 
 Mason, and Soul6, 1 desire to read some extracts : 
 
 "There has been a full and unreserved inter- 
 ' change of views and sentiments between us, 
 ' which we are most happy to inform you has re- 
 ' suited in a cordial coincidence of opinion on the 
 ' grave and important subjects submitted to our 
 ' consideration. 
 
 " We have arrived at the conclusion, and are 
 ' thoroughly convinced, that an immediate and 
 ' earnest effort ought to be made by the Govern- 
 1 ment of the United States to purchase Cuba 
 ' from Spain, at any price for which it can be 
 
 1 obtained, not exceeding the sum of dol- 
 
 1 lars." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " From its locality, it commands the mouth of 
 ' the Mississippi, and the immense annually in- 
 ' creasing trade which must seek this avenue 
 ' to the ocean. On the numerous navigable 
 ' streams, measuring an aggregate course of thirty 
 ' thousand miles, which disembogue themselves 
 ' through this magnificent river into the Gulf of 
 ' Mexico, the increase of the population within 
 ' the last ten years amounts to more than that of 
 ' the entire Union at the time Louisiana was an- 
 1 Hexed to it. 
 
 " The natural and main outlet to the products 
 4 of this entire population, the highway of their 
 ' direct intercourse with the Atlantic and the Pa- 
 ' cific States, can never be secure, but must ever 
 ' be endangered, while Cuba is a dependency of 
 ' a distinct Power, in whose possession it has 
 ' proved to be a source of constant annoyance 
 ' and embarassment to their interests." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " But if Spain, deaf to the voice of her own in- 
 ' terest, and actuated by stubborn pride and a 
 ' false sense of honor, shouM refuse to sell Cuba 
 ' to the United States, then the question will arise, 
 ' what ought to be the course of the American 
 • Government, under such circumstances? 
 
 " Self-preservation is the first law of nature 
 1 with States as well as with individuals. All 
 ' nations have, at different periods, acted upon 
 ' this maxim. Although it has been made the 
 « pretext for committing flagrant injustice, as in 
 ' the partition of Poland, aud other similar cases 
 1 which history records, yet the principle itself, 
 
 1 though often abused, has always been recog- 
 ' nised." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Our past history forbids that we should ac- 
 ' quire the Island of Cuba without the consent of 
 1 Spain, unless justified by the great law of self- 
 ' preservation. We must, in any event, preserve 
 ' our own conscious rectitude and our own self- 
 ' respect. Whilst pursuing this course, we can 
 ' afford to disregard the censures of the world, to 
 ' which we have been so often and so unjustly 
 ' exposed. 
 
 "After we shall have offered Spain a price for 
 ' Cuba far beyond its present value, and this shall 
 ' have been refused, it will then be time to con- 
 ' sider the question, Does Cuba, in the posseg- 
 ' sion of Spain, seriously endanger our internal 
 ' peace, and the existence of our cherished Union ? 
 
 "Should this question be answered in the af- 
 ' firmative, then by every law, human and divine, 
 ' we ahull be justified in wresting it from Spain, if 
 ' wepossess the power ; and this upon the very same 
 ' principle that would justify an individual intear- 
 ' ing down the burning house of his neighbor, if 
 ' there were no other means of preventing the 
 ' flames from destroying his own home. 
 
 "Under such circumstances, we ought neither 
 ' to count the cost nor regard the odd3 which 
 ' Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to 
 ' enter into the question, whether the present con- 
 ' dition of the island would justify such a meas- 
 ' ure. We should, however, be recreant to ou? 
 ' duty, be unworthy of our gallant forefathers, 
 ' and commit base treason against our posterity, 
 ' should we permit Cuba to be Africanized, and 
 ' become a second St. Domingo, with all its at- 
 ' tendant horrors to the white race, and suffer 
 ' the flames to extend to our neighboring shores, 
 ' seriously to endanger or actually to consume 
 ' the fair fabric of our Union. We fear that the 
 ' course and current of events are rapidly tend- 
 ' ing towards such a cata-strophe. We, however, 
 ' hope for the best, though we ought certainly to 
 1 be prepared for the worst." 
 
 General Pierce having broken down the bar- 
 rier of the Missouri Compromise, and prepared the 
 way for the introduction of Slavery into the Ter- 
 ritories of the United States, it is to be the mis- 
 sion of Mr. Buchanan's Administration, if the 
 American people shall see fit to elect him, to 
 extend Slavery iu another direction, and, if 
 necessary, by a resort to the means indicated 
 and shadowed forth in the foregoing extracts. 
 And I think I have read in some of the papers that 
 he was to be supported as the safe and conser- 
 vative candidate ! Sir, if any man, at any time, 
 in this country or any other, for the last three 
 centuries, has avowed doctrines more shameless 
 and atrocious than are contained in this report, 
 I have never read or heard of him. Other 
 nations may have contemplated and executed 
 schemes similar to that which engaged the at- 
 tention of the conference at Ostend; but it was 
 reserved to American diplomatists, in the last 
 half of the nineteenth century, to openly avow 
 the purpose and justify the principle which it 
 involves. 
 
 But, sir, it is an inexpressible relief to emerge 
 
14 
 
 from this dark and fetid atmosphere, reeking 
 with shames and wrongs, into the clear light 
 and healthful breeze3 of Truth and Liberty. A 
 few days since, upon the anniversary of the bat- 
 tle of Bunker Ilill, and in the city where sat the 
 convention which declared "these truths to be 
 self-evident: that all men are created equal; 
 that they are endowed by their creator 
 with certain inalienable rights j that among 
 these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness," assembled another convention, com- 
 posed of men devoted to the cause, and full of 
 the spirit which animated their predecessors. 
 That convention designated as the standard-bearer 
 of Freedom in this great contest, a strong and 
 true man, whose aim will be to maintain the 
 principles of the Constitution, and bring back 
 the Government to the policy of Washington and 
 Jefferson. It also adopted a platform which 
 recognises a North as well a3 a South, and 
 respects the rights of Freedom as not less sacred 
 than the claims of Slavery. In this assemblage 
 of freemen were the warm and devoted friends 
 of the able and ever-faithful Chief Magistrate of 
 the Buckeye State, who properly urged his great 
 qualifications for the highest position in the 
 Republic. There, too, were the supporters of 
 the accomplished jurist, the tried patriot, and 
 the Christian gentleman, John McLean. And 
 there, from every State and section, were hosts 
 of admirers of the foremost man of this coun- 
 try, and the first of living statesmen, recognised 
 in both hemispheres as the truest representative 
 of what is best in the civilization of the age. I 
 need not pronounce the name of the great Sena- 
 tor from New York. 
 
 "Disce, puer, virlutem ex me, verumque laborem; 
 Fortunum ex alii9." 
 
 But, sir, the ingenuous youth of America, who 
 shall study aright his life and character, will 
 learn not merely this, but the nobler lesson, that' 
 there is no higher fortune than attends him who, 
 in the hour of extremest peril, faithfully serves 
 and wisely saves his country. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, the friends of these gentlemen, 
 and of all others whose names, whether with 
 
 their own consent or not, were before the con- 
 vention, cheerfully and cordially united, as the 
 best thing which could be done in this exigency, 
 in presenting to the people of the United States, 
 as the anti-sectional and Republican candidate 
 for President, the name of the brave and chiv-v 
 alrous gentleman, who, more than any other msji 
 perhaps, contributed to place the star of Cali- 
 fornia in the galaxy of free States — a name which 
 is at once a synonym of the cause, and a prophecy 
 of success. 
 
 Sir, I triumph in the faith, nay, the undoubt- 
 ing conviction, that the proceedings of that con- 
 vention will be sustained by a large majority of 
 the American people. How can it be -doubted? | 
 Look around you — to Kansas, to the White 
 House, to this Capitol — and tell me if you can 
 doubt it, unless you are prepared to believe that 
 Civilization and Republicanism are failures, and 
 only Slavery and Barbarism possible upon the 
 earth 1 Doubt it ! No ; for you have seen that 
 tho same spirit which has always animated brave 
 men in great emergencies, possesses and guides 
 your brethren now ; and you have witnessed 
 how the freshly-committed and still-augmenting , 
 crimes against Liberty and Humanity have put 
 fire into their bones, and strength into their 
 arms. Doubt it ! No ; for in the vast assemblies 
 of the free North, you have taken by the hand 
 men of all political parties, who, sinking past 
 differences, have nobly united to save their 
 country, and you have felt the power which lies 
 in magnanimity and moral heroism. Doubt it! 
 No; for, from the throbbing hearts of your ' 
 countrymen, your spirit hears, in all hours and 
 places, the earnest and stirring invocation — 
 
 "Gather you, gather you, angels of God — 
 
 Freedom, and Mercy, and Truth ; 
 Come ! for the eanh has grown coward and old — 
 
 Come down and renew us her youth, 
 Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring, and I.ove, 
 Haste to the battle field, stoop from above, 
 To the day of the Lord at hand." 
 
 And with these allies, for they are never sum- 
 moned in vain in a cause like this, there can be / 
 no such thing as failure. 9 
 
 WASHINGTON. D. C. 
 
 BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS 
 
 1856. 
 
TO THE OrrONENTS OF SLAVEM-EXTENSTON. 
 
 3 
 
 'JH-898 31® 
 
 _ -uu. unprejudiced . 
 
 e nf which 
 
 the 
 
 '^k gt.ru 
 
 Iu vi 
 
 A Presidential Canvass of unusual significance is abu"* f ~ ~- 
 go far to determine wh *' T d R qrv OF COt**GR^ 
 stir of nur National course — whether »mm ni\\ 11 A\ VWWWW \\A\\\\\\\\A\\\\V^\\VlV^ 
 Providence to our keeping, shall be sul 
 frfiemen, or by lashed and blinded slat 
 bearings of this contest be set forth and 
 alter ever)- one shall have taken his p< 
 now, while the popular mind is measurai 
 
 these considerations, the National Publishing Committee have issu< 
 continue from time to time to publish, the most important Speeches and I 
 which have appeared and shall appear on the side of Free Labor and Human 
 Rights, which, we trust, those who love the cause will purchase for gratuitous 
 circulation among their friends and neighbors, with an eye to the Btrugg 
 fore us. 
 
 Eight page documents will be furnished at the rate of 62cts. per 100 copies, 
 and 10 page documents at $1.25 per 100 copies, free of postage. Wher 
 
 <ih document, a discount of 20 per cent, will 
 be made from these rates. 
 
 In order to facilitate their circulation, no extra charge will be made for en- 
 
 • nd directing'them to such names as may be furnished. 
 The very low price at which these documents are furnished, puts it within the 
 reach of every one to aid in their distribution. 
 
 Address, L. CLEPHANE, 
 
 Secretary, Washington, I). C. 
 
 LIST OF DOCUMENTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 At Gli cents per 100 capita — (/Vce of ■postage.') 
 By Rev. II. W 
 
 Defence of Kansas 
 Beecher. 
 
 Letter of Francis P. Blair to the Re- 
 publican Association. 
 
 The Poor Whites of the South. By 
 Geo. M. Weston of Maine. 
 
 Southern Slavery Reduces Northeru 
 Wages. Address by Geo. II. Weston, de- 
 livered in Washington City. 
 
 •Jircular Accompanying the Call of the 
 National Committee appointed at the Pitts- 
 burgh Convention. 
 
 At 01.25 per 100 copies 
 
 Reasons for Joining the Republican 
 
 Party. By Judge Poote of New York. 
 Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 
 
 Hon. John A. Bingham of Ohio. 
 Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 
 
 Hon. John Hickman of Pa. 
 Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 
 
 Hon. J. Washburn, Jr. of Me. 
 Kansas Affairs. Speech of Hon. II. 
 
 Waldron of Michigan. 
 The Slavery Question. Speech of Hon. 
 
 Johu Allison of Pa. 
 
 -{free of pottage.) 
 
 Address of the Pittsburgh Republican 
 Convention. 
 
 Organization of the Free State Govern- 
 ment in Kansas and rnaagural Address and 
 if Gov. Robii 
 fudge Collanier's Minority Report on 
 
 Oration at Plymouth. By Hon. Win. 
 H. Seward. 
 
 rs iu Kansas Territory. Speech 
 of Hon. L. Trumbull of III. 
 
 The Dangers of Extending Slavery, and 
 
 the Contest and ihe Crisis. Two Speeches 
 
 of Hon. W. B. Seward. 
 Immediate admission of Kansas into the 
 
 Union. Speech of Hon. W. H. Seward 
 Admission of Kansas. Speech of Hon 
 
 Jas. Harlan of Iowa. 
 The Wrongs of Kansas Speech of Hon. 
 
 Johu P. Hale. 
 The State of Affairs in Kansas. Speech 
 
 of Hon. Chas. Sumner, 
 
 IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Letter of Francis P. Blair to the Re- 
 publican Association. 
 
 ■>s and Declaration of Principles 
 of the l'liuliurjih Convention. 
 
 The Contest and the Crisis. Speech of 
 
 Hon. W. 11. Seward. 
 The Dangers of Extending Slavery. 
 
 Speech of Hon. W. H. Seward. 
 
/JO 
 
<*x 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS