Slavery What It Was, What It Has Done, What It Intends To Do by Cydnor Bailey Tompkins
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Title:Slavery: what it was, what it has done, what it intends to do.

Speech of Hon. Cydnor B. Tompkins, of Ohio. Delivered in the House of representatives, April 24, 1860.

Author:Tompkins, Cydnor Bailey, 1810-1862.

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Print Source:Slavery: what it was, what it has done, what it intends to do. Speech of Hon. Cydnor B. Tompkins, of Ohio. Delivered in the House of representatives, April 24, 1860.

Tompkins, Cydnor Bailey, 1810-1862.

8 p. 24 cm.

[Washington?

Republican congressional committee,

1860?]

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,/;,. ii -, -, SLAVERY: WV-HAT IT WVAS, WHAT IT’HAS DONE, WHAT ~ ~4’

I~Tr ITlET1sS Tn DO kl 7 (2-33’ y,~ S-P E E C H - HON. C-YDNOR B.

TOMIPKINS, OF 0HI0. Delivered in the-House of Representatives, April 24, 1860… -0 that have characterized many speeches made -this session by pro-slhvery members. I shall endeavor to sh ow th at the fttheris of this Republic, bo th o f the Nor th and South, we re m ore thoroughly anti-slavery than any political panrty now in te countryi; and th gat, for more tha n fort years afte r i ts organization, a lar ge majo rity -t our prominent me n w ere strongly opposed to the extension of that “paeicart achal institution.‘o The debates in the Federal Convent io n sho w that the Constitution was fram ed, adopted, and ratified, b y anti-slavery me n; bth at th ey regarded it as an evil, yet were ashamed to acknowledge hits existence in wor ds-th us virtually refusing te recognise propert y in man. Resolutions adadress e s, and speeche s, n ow to be found, establish this very important fact, as I will show by quotations from them. At a general meeting in Prince George county, Virginia, it was “Resolved, That the African slave trade is in’ jurious to this colony, obstructs the population ‘of it by free men, and prevents manufacturers ‘
from Burope from settling among us.’} At a meeting in Culpeper county, Virginia, it was ” Reeolved, That the importation of slaves ob’ striicts the population with free white men and ‘ useful manufacturers.” At a meeting in Nansemond county, Virginia, it was ” Re.olved, That the African slave trade is in’ jurious to this colony, obstructs the population ‘ by free men, and prevents manufacturers from ‘ settling amongst us.”

Resolutions to the same -effect were adopted in Surrey county, Caroline county; and at a meeting in Fairfax coiunty, over which George Washington presided, resolutions of like import were adopted. At a very full meeting of delegates from the different counties of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, at Williamsbtirg, on the 1st day of August, 1774, it was “l Resolved, that the abolition of domestic sla’very is the greatest object of desire in these ‘colonies, where it was improperly introduced ‘ in their infant state.” This is the language of the goodiand wise men Mr.

TOMPKINS said: ~ Mr. CAnMAmNA: The charge is frequently made, that nothing but slavery ocenpies the attention of the National Legislature. That this charge is true to a great extent, that this subject is cons;antly kept before the country, and that there is constant excitement about it, ii not the fault of the Republican party. In the first hour of the present session of Congress, it was thrust upon the House by a member of the slavery party; for two amonths a discussion was continued upon that sabject, and almost exclusively by that party-a discussion unparalleled in point of violence and virulence in the history of Parliament-ary debate. Charges the most aggravated were unscrupulously and shamelessly made against the best and purest men of the country, and honorable members on this floor. Calumny and vituperation held high carnival in the legislative halls of this great nation. The columns of the J)aily Gloi teemed with fierce and fiery denunciations of all who would not bow to the behests of pro-slavery power. Depraved, corrupt, and polluted presses exerted themselves to the utmost in the weork of slander and detraction; hireling scribblers for worse than hireling presses glutted themselves and tiade their meqls on good men’s ,na,mes. These spacious galleries were filled with disloyal men, ready to applaud to the echo every threat uttered against the Government, and every disloyal sentiment heard from this floor. If the Republicans here shalt feel it to be their ,,duty to discuss this subject now; to lay bare its weakness and its wickedness; to expose the .nadness and the folly of those who sustain, support, and-cherish it; if the great interests of the country havo to be neglected for a timee; if ordinary legislation must be put aside, no complaint .an be made against tie Republican party. That party, its principles, its men, and its measures, have been misrepresented, and most unjustly assailed. It is our privilege, it is our duty, to repel those assaults, that the world may know that when the advanced giard of freedom is attacked, l’ our fee t shall be away s in the arena, asad our shields shall hang always in the’lists.” I intend to review this question for the time allowed ma I hope to do so with fairness and candor, aEd not with the passion A1:gx,itement I iI &,.r-,, 4, -2-33 ,.3 j(1 (1, or 0

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2 I cannot quote at greater length from the proceedings of this committee.

Their philanthropy was without regard to compl exion; t hey a bhorred slavery, as based on injustice and cruelty; and more, as dangerous to our liberties. If it were founded in injustice and cruelty in 17v5, i t isthe same in 1860. It was dang ero us to libert y then; no ma n now apprehends any danger to liberty, unless from the sa me source. It is daily threatened by me n who are interes ted i n slavery. Lib. erty cannot be very secure where four million human beings are held in hopeless bo ndage - where human blood, bone, muscle a n, and, I might almost say, immortal souls, are a rticles of merchandise. The historical quotation s I ha ve made brin g me to the Revolution. I will cite the eio b it th o pinions of some of the great actors in that great drama. George Washington s aid, in his will: “Upon the decease of my wife, it is my desire ‘that the slave s who m I hol d in mny own right ‘ should receive their fri eedom.” Again, he said: “I never me an, unless some particular cir cum ‘stance should co mpel me, to possess another ‘ s lave by purchase, it being my first wish to see ‘ some plan adapted by which slaver y i n th is ‘ country may be abolished by law.” Lai Fayette, while in the prison of Magdeburg. said: “

I know not what disposition has been made ‘ of my plantation at Ca) ennex; but I hope Mod’ame de La Fayette will take care that the ‘negroes who cultivat e i t sha ll preserve their ‘ liberties.” Washington wrote to Robert Morris: ” It will not be conceived, from these observa’ tions, that it is. my wish to hold these unhappy ‘people (negroes) in slavery. I can only say ‘ that there is not a man living who wishes more ‘ sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted foi ‘ the abolition of it.” Again, he writes to La Fayette.: “The benevolence of your heart, my dear Mar’ quis, is so conspicuous on all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh proof of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cay’ enne, with a view of emancipating the slaves ‘on it, is a generous and noble proof of your ‘ humanity. Woixld to God a like spirit might ‘diffuse itself generally into the people of this ‘ country I Washington hoped for some plan by which slavery might be legally abolished. Washington lauded the humanity of La Fayette in purchasing an estate for the purpose of emancipating the negroes. I will leave it to gentlemenon the otber side to draw the comparison between the chiv alry of the South then and now; between the licentious assumption of thought and utterance permitted then, and the course of conviction and conversion esteemed necessary and equitable now, towards hapless offenders in the footsteps of predecessors so illustrious’ Patrick Henry said: ” Slavery is detested; wre feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. hI c repeat again, that it would rejoice my very Rout of the Old Dominion in 1774; “
the abolition of domestic slavery was the greatest object of their desire.” Not merely to limit it, to prevent its extension, but wholly to overthrow it. What would be said if a body of men, equally wise, good, and patriotic, should now meet in the Old Dominion, and attempt to pass such resolutions? They would be scourged, driven by violence from the State, and might be considered fortunate should they escape with their lives. At a meeting in Newbern, North Carolina, August, 1774, numerously attended by the most distinguished men of that region, it was resolved that they would not import any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves imported or brought into that province by others from any part of the world. Such was the sentiment of North Carolina in 1774, as to the evil and great wrong of slavery. The Continental Congress, in October, 1774, resolved that they would neither import, nor purchase any slave imported, after December of the same year; they agreed and resolved that they would have no trade, commerce, dealings, or intercourse whatsoever, with any colony or province in North America which should not accede to, or should violate, this resolve, but would hold them as unworthy the rights of freemen and inimical to the liberties of this country. But what is now the attitude of slaveholders? They will hold no intercourse, they will have no dealings, with any person or State that does not approve of slavery, and yield to its intolerant and despotic demands; if any man, not thus approving and yielding, chances to travel through the slav e States, an d there to express his sentiments, he is subjected to the degra dation and cruelty of the lash, and is driven trom the State. October 21, 17 74, t he Contin ent al Cong ress, in an address to the peopl e of Gr e at Britain, said: “When a nation, led to greatness by the hand of liberty, and possessed of all the glory that heroism, munificence, and humanity, can be stow, descends to the ungrateful task of foorging t chains for her friends and children, and, instead of giving support to freedom, turns advocate for slavery and oppression, there is reason to suspect that she has either ceased to be virtu ous, or is extremely negligent in the appoint’ ment of her rulers.” Is not this the situation and condition of this country now-?

Is not a great party now engaged in the ungrateful task of forging chains for a large portion of the people of this country? Instead of supporting freedom, does it not advocate sla very *nd oppression? Ilave we not reason to suspect that too many of our countrymen have ceased to be virtuous? By the Darien committee, Georgia, January, 1775, it was declared: “To show,he world that we are not influenced ‘ by any contracted and interested motives, but ‘a general philanthropy for all mankind, of what’ever lan~guage or complexion, we hereby declare ‘our disapprobation and abhorrence of the un’ natural practice of slavery in America a prac’tice founded in injustice and cruelty~ and highly ‘ dangerous to our liberties.” lp ii i i i i

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3 ‘ that every one of my fellow beings were eman-‘he would have done right; but it was to cow ‘ cipated. We ought to lament and deplore the’sign them to inevitable death from small-pox ‘ necessity of holding our fellow men in bond-‘ and putrid fever then raging. in his camp.” ‘
age.”’ I conclude here my citations from the united Charles Pinckney, Governor of South Carolina, voices of some of the best men of the country, said: before and after the Revolution, against slavery ” I must say that I lament the decision of your as an evil, and a great national sin, not that I Legislature upon the question of the importa-have exhausted their utterances, but that my tion of slaves after March, 1793. I was in time admits of no more. ‘ hopes that motives of policy, as well as other The Republican party proclaims no doctrine ‘ good reasons, supported by the direful effects so ultra as theirs, uses no language so strong as of slavery which at this moment are presented, that of those Southern statesmen from whom it ‘would have operated to produce a total prohi-gains so much information, and whose viewg, to ‘ bition of the importation of slaves, whenever 1 a great extent, it conscientiously accepts. We ‘ the question came to be agitated in any State desire only to confine it within its present limits; ‘that might be interested in the measure.” we sk that it shall not pollute territory now Such were the sentiments of the most enlight-free; we know the utter folly of appealing to ened, the most virtuous men of our country in its the morality or humanity of a pro-slavery party, heroic age. George Mason, of Virginia, stigma-where the rights of a black man are involved; tized the slave trade as an “infernal traffic I” but when you insist on taking slaves into a free He said that “slavery discouraged manufactures; Territory, and smiting the land with this blightthat it produced the most pernicious effect on ing, withering curse. we plant ourselves on our manners.” Without intending to be personal constitutional rights, and say, thus far shall you or offensive, I think I can pause here and prop-go, and no further. erly remark, that if the effects of slavery are The learned gentleman from Alabama, [Mr. changed in every other respect, the effect on CURRY,] in alluding to the opinion of the fathers manners is the same now that it was in the last of the Republic, said: century. The epithets used by men on this “These, however, were but mere speculafloor, their arrogant bearing towards their peers,’ tions.” is abundant proof that there is no change in that Was it a mere speculation when Madison said, respect. We have frequently heard members, ” we have seen a mere distinction of color made this session, speak of a great party in this coun-the ground of the most oppressive dominion of try as the Black Republican party. Legislative man over man?” Was it as a mere speculation bodies in the slave States have so far forgotten I that Jefferson wrote, that Cornwallis would have what should be due to the standing and dignity of been right, had he carried away his (Jefferson’s) a Legislature, as to call a certain party, in their of-slaves to free them? Was it a mere speculation, ficial proceedings, the ” Black Republican party.” a wild fancy, that the framers of the ConstituWhy are men betrayed into such violations of tion would not admit that there could be such the proprieties of life? There can be no other a thing as property in man? A mere speculation, reason than the one given by George Mason was it, of Patrick Henry, when he said “that eighty years ago: slavery produces a most per-slavery is detested; we feel its fatal effects; we nicious effect upon manners. I know it is deplore it?” when he declared it would “reclaimed, by men in the slave States, that slavery joice his very soul, were all his fellow beings is necessary to the highestdevelopment of hu-emancipated? ” Was it a mere speculation man society; but I think the experience of mem-when Jefferson wrote, and his colleagues signed, bers of Congress is, that slavery does not always “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all produce this beneficial result. menare created equal?” No one then -doubted I revert to my Southern authorities upon the the truth of this declaration. More than a genpeculiar institution. Mr. Iredell, of North Caro-eration passed away before any man dared raise lina, thus expresses himself: his voice against it. No, sir; this was no mere “When the entire abolition of slavery takes speculation, but the acknowledgment of a great place, it will be an event which must be most “humanitarian fact.” True then, it is true now; ‘
pleasing to every generous mind, and to every and must remain indisputable and eternal-a ‘ friend of human nature.” pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day, to guide Thomas Jefferson whites: and guard nations yet unborn in the path of “The’spirit of the master is abating’: that of honor, of safety, of moral and political grandeur. ‘ the slave rising from the dust; his, condition But the learned gentleman does not pause mollifying; the way, I hope, preparing, under upon these “speculations.” He proceeds to tell ‘ the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipa-us that circumstances are changed; that there ‘ tion.” was then little more than half a million slaves, He continues, in his plan for a Constitution for and scarce a pound of cotton exported. Does Virginia: the gentleman believe, or does he but attempt “Nothing is more certainly written in the book to lead us to believe, that the ethics of those ‘of fate, than that these people are to be free.” men “without fear and without reproach” had In a letter to Dr.

Gordon, on Lord Cornwallis’s no sounder foundation than this: that while invasion of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson says: slaves were few and cotton scarce, slavery might “He carried off also about thirty slaves, (Jef-be a wrong, but with four million slaves and ‘ ferson’s.) Had this been to give them freedom, four million two hundred thousand bales of cot t VI i I I I

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[ rid of these bonds.” But, slave la bor has beLome profitable in some parts of the South; the mania for wealth has se ized the slaveholder’s avarice, has dried up the fountain of humanity. The lust of powe r and dominion deadens t heir consciences; a million bales of cotton can blind their eyes alike to the fl ames of perdition and the glories of Paradise.

They make to themselves friends of the Ma mmo n of tunrighteousness; they become full, a nd deny thei r Maker, an d say, who is the Lord I Concerning oppression, they speak lof tily. But they are set in slippery places; they wil l be cast down unto destruction. The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. LAMAR] said, a few days since: “I t ell you, Mr.

Chairman, that God’s sun ‘ do es not shine upon a nobler, proude r, more ‘
pr erosperous, and elevated class of people, than ‘ the nonslaveh olde rs of the South.” This, I think, will be news to many nonslaveholders in the gentleman’s district. Thomas Jefferson tells us that man is an imitative animal; therefore, if the assertion of the gentleman from Mississippi be correct, we must wonder why slaveholders do not relie ve thesev them selves of their negroes, that the y may become equally noble, proud, prosperous, and elevated, with the nonslaveholder. Who can compare with them on this side of Paradise? With them, the millen nium can be no object of desire, since ” Not a wave of trouble rolls Across their peaceful breasts.” Still there must be some malice in their heartsh for the honorable gentleman states that they (the nonslaveholders) hold slavery in the hol low of their hands; surely, were they benevo lent, they would close their hands and crush oat the ” institution,” that their slaveholding fellow citizens might become as prosperous and as happy as themselves. The assertion is fiequently made, that white men’cannot work in the hot latitudes of the South, and this is offered as a reason why there should be black slaves there. The gentleman knocks one of the strongest props from under the institution. He tells us white men work, and raise not only cotton, but corn and potatoes. He also informs us that after the cotton, corn, and potatoes, are raised, the strong, brave man drives the plow through the fallow ground. It will be seen that work during the summer has not produced the lassitude and enervation that it has been claimed is produced in/white men by labor. We are still further informed, that the fallow ground turned up by the strong, brave man, discloses something more valuable than the gold of California-“‘Tis the sparkles of libertyI” W~e have beard of the sparkles of liberty that are made manifest to the nonl-slaveholders of the South. The poor labor ing man at Columbia, South Carolinas when streams of blobd issued from the furrows plowed in his naked back bar a cow-hide in the hands of a negro, saw some of the sparkles of liberty, when, bleeding, exhausted, besmeared with tar, and covered with feathers, he was thrust into the cars, and left to perish in the cold. Hie had, ion, it becomes just, humane, moral? -that while negroes and cotton fill one side of the scales, Christian truth must kick the beam on the other, and slavery thus becomes a great *hilmanitarian fact?“T The right and wrong of the thing, about which there has been so much discussion, is now easily solved. The gentleman has found an infallible rule; it is simply to make a chemical analysis of your soil; if it will produce cotton, you can purchase slaves and work them without violating the laws of God or man. We may also infer, or be induced to believe, from the honorable gentleman’s speech, that if nothing is raised but indigo and rice, the propriety and morality of holding men in bondage is doubtful. Not such, sir, were the “speculations” bf the fathers of the Republic. Lucid as is the gentleman’s speech in general, there is a want of clearness in the last point I have cited; but this is owing entirely to the materials used in the demonstration-rice and indigo will not do; nothing will serve but cotton; cotton ever, cotton only. If slave labor, then, is profitable, slaveholding is equitable. Thus it is decided, that whatever is profitable is also equitable: justice and injustice are mere matters of profit and loss; the morality or immorality of slavery a mere question of soil and climate. The great authorities cited as to the evil effects of slavery on the white race, should satisfy the most incredulous.

But, says the learned gen tleman from Alabama, there were few slaves at that time, and scarce a pound of cotton for ex portation. Let us, then, pass from that period, to one when the few slaves had become millions, and the bales of cotton exported were estimated in like manner. In 1832, Thomas Marshall, of Virginia, said of slavery: “It is ruinous to the whites; retards im’ provement;.roots out an industrious popula tion; banishes the yeomanry of the covntry; deprives the spinner, the weaver, the smith, the ‘shoemaker, the carpenter, of employment and ‘ support.

Labor of every species is disreputa ble, because performed mostly by slaves; the general aspect of the country marks the curse of a wasteful, idle, reckless population, who have no interest in the soil, and care not how ‘much it is impoverished.” Mr. Berry, of Virginia, spoke thus: “I believe that no cancer on the physical body i was ever more certain, steady, and fatal, in its t progress, than is the cancer of slavery on the political body of the State of Virginia. It is eating into her very vitals.” The records of Southern statesmanship, sir, abound in such and stronger expressions. Sla very had then existed in this country more than two hundred years, yet scarce a man could be then found so bold and 80
reckless as to pro claim it just and righteous, a humane, a Chris:tian institution. Nearly the whole civilized world united in its condemnation;*
the ministers of our holy religion in the slave States declaimed :ainlst it; their solemn petitions ascended to iie throne of God,that the country might be i

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5 is at once presented to the mind, how elevated in the scale o f e xis tence ca n a man be who can neither read nor write? I have shown that slavery was r egarded as a political, moral, and social evil, by the f o und ers of th is Republic, and by able Southern statesmen within thirty years; that their a nxious query has been, ” what is tt be done with it?”

We a re now asked to dis cr edi t those m en, and give ear to a modern creed, that s lavery is not only nec essary, but beneficent-a divine ordi,-ance-and that Southern nonslaveholders, even, are prosperous a nd e levated just in proportion: to the nu mber of slaves owne d by their neighbors. Not such, sir, were the “speculations ” of the fathers of the Republic; nor is the world to be deceived by such assumptions. Decree and carry out what non-intercourse you will; surround yourselves with barriers as impassable as the Chinese wall, or the great gulf between Dives and Lazarus, still the evidences of your condition will exist on the imperishable pages of history, in the records left by the mighty and venerated dead; and the attempt to establish the belief that slavery is a universal blessing will be received but as an aggression upon the credulity of mankind. Forty years ago, a slave Territory applied for admission to the Union as a State. The friends of freedom objected that its reception would be contrary to the policy of our Government. ” Admit it,” it was urged, a1 with its present Constitution, and we will consent to a line of demarkation, north of which slavery shall never pass.” This was solemnly agreed to before the whole world; and this compact, forced upon the country by the slave power, was claimed by it as a great triumph of slavery. Men at the North felt that this was a great aggression, a great outrage upon freedom; yet, to give quiet and restore harmony, they submitted, consoled by the na tional pledge that slavery should be extended no further, and believing that the nation might joy ously look forward to long years of happiness and repose. But despotism is ever restless and grasping; but twenty-five years rolled by-a very short period in the life of a nation-ere Texas was admitted to the Union, that slavery propa gandists could have a wider field for their op erations. As everybody foresaw, war ensued; and the best blood of the nation fattened the soil of Mexico. More than two hundred millions of treasure were expended, and many thousand valuable lives sacrificed. All over this land, “the sky was hung with blackness; ” ” mourning was spread over the mountain tops.” Territory enough was obtained to make four large States, well adapted to the productive labor of human chat tels, and this territorv was blackened over with slavery. Such a triumph ought to have satisfied the most grasping of the friends of this ” pecu liar instituti~on;” but the world should have known that nothing short of universal dominion would satisfy the slave owne~r and slave breeder. Less than ten years after the annexation of Texas, it was discovered by Southern men that there was a Territory west of Missouri, wherein the peculiar institution of the South could be no doubt, a vivid idea of the liberty that is enjoyed by nonslaveholders in the South, when he remembered that these cruelties and barbarities were inflicted on him for expressing a rational and honest opinion relative to this ” peculiar institution.” The statements, and doubtless convictions, of the honorable member from Mississippi, differ singularly from those of Senator CLAY, of Alabama, who tells us that, in his State, “we may ‘behold numerous fine houses, once the abode ‘ of intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, ‘or else tenantless and dilapidated; that we ‘ may see fields, once fertile, covered with fox’tail and broom-sedge-moss growing on the ‘ walls of once thrifty villages, and may find that ”one only master grasps the whole domain’ ‘which once furnished homes for a dozen white ‘ families.”

Hear, also, Senator HAMMO’.ID, of South Carolina, who says of the nonslaveholders of his State: ” They obta in a precarious subsist ence by oc casionil jobs, by hunting, by fishing, by plun dering fields or folds, or, too often, by what is ‘far worse in its effects, trading with slaves, and ‘leading them to plunder for their benefit.” The opinions already quoted from many of the wise men of the South go far to’ demonstrate that the gentleman from Mississippi is entirely, mistaken. v’fhere is, however, another test by which we can try the accuracy of what the gentleman has said about the nonslaveholders of the South. The census report of 1850
shows this important fact: that of the white men in the slave States over twentyone years of age, there is about one in every twelve that cannot read and write; while in the free States there is only one out of every forty-five. It must also be remembered, that a very large number of those in the free States who cannot read, came originally from the slave States.

Take, for instance, MIassavhusetts, where there are but very few persons from the slave States, if any, and there is only one in seven hundred and seventy-eight that cannot read and write. Take Indiana and Illinois-States that have large populations from the slave States-Indiana, one in every fourteen cannot read; in Illinois, one in every twentyone and a half; and if any one will take the trouble to examine, it will no doubt be found that this ignorance exists almost entirely where the population from the slave States largely predominates. I will venture the assertion, that there can scarcely be a mail found in the State of Ohio, that was born there, who possesses intellect capable of cultivation, that cannot read; while a very large portion of those ignorant men in the slave States were “to the manor born.” It must also be borne in mind that, in making the estimate of the free States, the men that per form all the labor are included. In the slave States, ile I do no neat ld ats the men work a re not included. I do not know that any great good can come of making these comparisons. But when the gentleman tells us that the non slaveholders in his State are the most prosperous and the most elevated of mankind, the inquiry I I lp I 4 I A

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6 made profitable; but by a solemn league and covenant this l and h ad been, for m ore than a third of a century, consecrated to freedom. This bond of national faith, th.is pledge of national honor, stood in the road of their ambition. But men whose live s ar e bu t a series of violations of the dearest rights that God has bestow ed on m an c annot be expe ct ed to b e bound by pledges of national faith and national honor. This time-honored compact was annulled, the barrier between freedom and slavery broken down. The whole country was astounded at the perfidy of the act.

But the climax was not reached. The Territory was overrun with desperadoes; ruffians from adjoining States usurped the rights of actual settlers, ctulfed ballot-boxes with illegal votes, and elected nmembers of their own lawless bands to the Legislature, to enact laws by which every friend of freedom might be driven from the country. Innocent and unoffending men were murdered in cold blood, houses were consumed with fire, hamlets laid in smoking ruins, homeless and houseless innocents, women and tender children, were driven forth, exirosed to the winds and storms of heaven. All these wrongs, all these outrages, all these crimes of blood and deeds of horror, were comnmitted to plant the accursed institution on the soil that had been, by a great national act, dedicated to treedom. But violence and arson, bloodshed and murder, faited. The black banner of slavery is trailing in the dust. The stars and stripes wave triumphantly over a free and joyous people. The heretofore invincible is conquered. 1 have borrowed the word ” aggression ” to express the conduct of the South toward the iNorth. I do not intend to make the charge without the specifications. 1. I charge upon slavery, that the enforcement of ” he 4issouri compromise was an aggression upon the North. 2. I charge the annexation of Texas, whereby the Mexican war was brought upon the country, more than two hundred millions of money were spent, and many thousand lives sacrificed, as an aggression. 3. i charge that the adoption of the fugitive slave law, with many of its odious and obnoxious provisions, was an aggression upon the people of the North. 4. I charge that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scot case was an aggression upon the North. It was a decision made for the benefit of slavery, and to deprive the people of the free States of their equal rights in the Territories. 5. I charge that the repeal of the Missouri compromise line was an outrageous aggression upon the rights of the North; disreputable to the nation, and dishonorable to the party engaged in it; one that has brought ill its train innumerable woes, and created an excitement that will not be allayed during the present generation. 6. I charge that the murders, robberies, and arsons, in Kansas, were aggressions of’ slavery. All these things I have charged as aggressions of slavery are national a.ggressions, for which the slavery party, having control of the admin istration of this Government, are responsible. I charge them as direct, positive aggressions, on the rights of the free people of the North. In addition to these great national aggressions, there are numerous similar infringements upon the rights of individuals of the North-of tarring and feathering, of whipping-acts of such bar barity and cruelty, that it would chill a man’s bloodito hear them recited.

Recently, a whole community of moral, peace able citizens wpre driven from their homes, com pelled to abandon their property, and seek refuge in a free State, from the violence of slavehold ers. There are, no doubt, many good and hu mane men in slave States, who deprecate these wrongs; but they dare not utter a word-every mouth must be sto)pped, every lip must be sealed, every voice must be hushed, all must be silent as the grave-the most inexorable despotism reigns supreme. Having endeavored to show what slavery was, and what it has done, I now propose to show what it intends to do. Its advocates claim that the territory now belonging to the Government is the common property of all the States, having been acquired by the common blood and treasure of all; that, therefore, the inhabitants of the slave States have a right to emigrate to the Ter ritories, and take with them their slaves. I am willing to admit that the inhabitants of one sec tion otf the country have just the same rights in the Territories that the inhabitants of another section have. I say it would be an act of injils tice to deny one man any right in the Territory that another man has, and would belust cause of complaint. But I am not w.illing to give to a man from a slave State any greater rights than to a man from a free State. And when I have admitted that all have the same constitutional rights in the Territories, I have by no means adnitted that men from the South have a right to hold slaves in the Territories. You may go, and take your slaves with you, if you have a mind to run the risk; I say you shattll not take your slave laws with you. I say that slavery is but the creation of some local enactment, and that no property can exist in a human being, unless it is made so by some law. This opinion was entertained by the founders of this Republic, and by nearly every states man in this country, until very recently. We hear much said about the constitutional rights of the South; it is thundered in our ears from the beginning to the end of the session of Congress. What is meant by this stereotyped expression, I do not exactly comprehend; and, I presume, many who make use of the phrase do not understand it. If you mean by this that the Constitution of the United States gives you the right to go into the Territories belonging to the people of this country, and take with you not only your human chattels, but also your bloody slave laws, I say, you have no such constitutional rights. The Constitution of the United States nowhere recognises slaves as property. The Supreme (Court of the United States has decided that slaves I ‘A

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7 are not property under the Constitution. The Constitution gives you the right to reclaim your slaves, if they escape into any other State; this is all the right it gives you, and all there is in the Constitution that can by any possibility be construed to apply to slaves. To contend that there is any power given in the Constitution which enables the slaveholder to take his slaves with him into a Territory, and not only his slaves, but his slave laws, and the -lave laws of all the slave States, is an assumption of power that I am not willing to concede to him. It is claimed that if persons from the slave States are not permitted to go into the Territories, and take with them their slaves and slave laws, the rights otf the slave States are violated. This cannot be. If you claim to take into the Territories the laws of the slave States, anid not only the laws, but the Constitution of a slave State, I claim, also, that I will take the Constitution of my State, which says there shall be neiher slavery nor involuntary servitude; and if you do not permit this, the rights of my State are violated, if your doctrine be true. The emigrants from every State in the Union, under the power claimed by the slavery propagandists, would have a right to take with them all the constitutions and all the laws of all the States. The confusion which would follow would be worse than at the Tower of Babel. If a citizen of any slave State leaves it, and goes into a free State or Territory to reside, he takes with him none of the rights or powers with which his State clothed him while he remained therein. He can take with him such articles ats, by the universal consent ot mankind, are considered property, and exercise ownership over them.

When-at home, I am a legal voter; I can vote for any State or county officer, or President of the United States. But if I cross the river, a distance of eighty rods, or go out of my election district, or “n any other direction, I have no such privilege. The right ot sluffrage, which is the highest right t ha t ever cit n be exerci sed by a citi,zen, is controlled by the laws and Constitution of each particular State. In the State of Ohio, a man need not be a property holder to entitle him to the right of suffrage; it he remove into a State where he must have a property qualification before he can vote, are the rights of the State he left violated? I presume no one will contend that they are. A man may have some power in the State of Virginia, given by its Legislature-the right to issue paper money, for instance; but if he remove to Ohio, he has not this right. No man would pretend to claim that any of the rigbts of Virginia are infringed. Yet the man who would make this claim, would be just as reasonable as he who should claim that the rigbts of Virginia are invaded because her slaveholders are not permitted to take slaves into Kansas or Nebraska. I-understand those Southern men, who talk so much about Southern rights, claim not only the right to take slaves into the Territories, but theyr claim the right to take slave laws and the habits and customs which arc practiced ill the slave States. T5hey claim to take laws by. which tbur million negroes are redined t o the, condition o f brutes. Six million white men, women, and c hi ldren, who have to obtain their living by labor, are condemned to perpetual degradation and ignorance, by whi ch t hree hundred an d lifty thousand slaveholders can govern and control th e destinies of the millions of people in the slave States; and no t only of those people, bai t of this great country of ours. They not only claim keit t te the right to take their negroes into the Territories, but they claim t o t ake la ws there that Will deny to every man t he freedom of s pe ech and the liberty of the press. The y cl aim the r ight to seal every man’s lips, and stop every man’s mouth, or question s of great national interest. Theygclaim to take wi th t h them the Piglt to condemn as a felon the Yuan who may utter and maintain the Declaration o f Inde pende nce, or the opinions of the conscript fathers of the Republic. They claint to tak e w ith them the right. to condemnu as a felon the man who dare s procl aim th e precepts of our h oly re ligion. The y claim to take with them the right to strip naked and cut int o gashes the back of t he man who utters opinions that do no t e xactly “sSqu are and corner” with the interests of the aristocrattic slaveholders. A negro populati o n is one by nlo means denrbble, but a fre e whi te man could live where the” are negroes, and mai ntain h is freedom; but no white nonslaveholder can live w he r e slave laws, customs, and habits, pertain, and retain the rights tha t belong to tre e men in ftiee States. A man may live in the swamps of the torrid zone, and escape the crocodiles, alligators, anai o ther slimy and creeping things, but he cannot escape the miasma and poison of the atmosphere. if the slaveholder is permitted to go into the Territories, and take his slave laws, habitss, and customs, the p eople oif the free States are to a great extent excluded t h erefr o m, a nd deprived of all rights therein. But slaveholders say they will go; they will take their slaves, and their slave code; they will establish there such a despotism as reigns ii some of the slave States; they will poison the air that surrounds the fbrtile plains of the West, until freedom shall sicken and die; and we are constantly told, that if we do not yield to their unreasonable demands, this Union shall be dissolved! But these threats do not move or alarm me, and for the best of all possible reasons; I go not be. lieve that the gentlemtn who make these threats intend to leave their places on this floor-nor, if they should, would the country suffer any loss. The section they represent would still remain under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and our glorious flag would still wave over its fertile plains and lofty mountains, its woody dells and shelving rocks, its gurgling fountains and rippling rills. Good, loyal, and patriotic men would come here to {ill the vacant places, ready and able to discharge their duty to the countryr, and to the whole country.

Notwithstanding these threats of disunion from the Democratic party, we hear much holy horror expressed in regard to a: sectional party} and I I, - i - : I i’ “. z: .4A: i i 4 .I .I I

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8 n uch laudation of a natignal, conservative party. Tile nationality or’

the Dimocratic party consists in devoting all the energies and power of the Federal Government to advancing the interests, aims, and ends, of about one hundred thousand men. Its conservatism consists in its avowed determination to dissolve the Union, should a majority of our people, in the exercise of their legal and constitutional rights, elect a President not acceptable to that party. There are, I presume, not more than one hundred thousand men in this country who feel any desire to extend the boundaries of slavery, or who would, had they the power, add one other slave State to the Union. Yet the whole power of this Government is devoted to that one object; its entire strength concentrated in one spasmodic effort to extend slavery. The agricultural, the ma nufact uring, the grea t commerc ial intere sts of this country, are entirely ignored, neglected, and forgotten, that the interests of one hundred thou sand slaveholders ma y b e adv anced. The great pu rsuits by which twenty-five million p eople live, are not considered worthy the attention of this Democratic party; while one hundred thousand aristocrats) require its entire services. Yet this is the g reat national party I While so d etermi ned upon rule is it, that if a majority o f the people should decide against it, and disc harge its members from places of trust and honor, they threaten to destr oy this Govern ment. Such is the con s ervati ve party commended to our most favorable consideration. The slavery party is consta nt ly complaining that t he free St ate s enact personal-liberty laws, andv that they do not fulfi l their constitutional obligations.

Whatever acts may b e p assed by our Legislatures, so that they do not interfere wi th the donstitutio of the United States, you hav e no right to complain.. But if you think that Constitution violated, you have your remedy. Send your att orneys int o the free States; com mence your s uits in the F ede ral c ou rts, and try the validity of our statutes. We pledge o urselves that your agents s hall be k indly treated, and shall have a fair he a ring. We will not follow your exatmple; wle w ill n ot pass laws in plain and pal pabl e violation of your rights, and in palpable violation of the Constit ution, and the n drive out, by threats or tiolence, any man who may come into the State to test the validity of such enact ments. I Before you complain of us, go home and seize and hang the pirates who are hovering around your shores, e ngaged in the slave trade.

You may say a jurywill not convict them. Wh not? Because the community sustains them in their unholy traffic and in their VioItion of the laws.

But if you really desired to punish those men, you could easily devise the ways and means-a whipping on the bare back with a raw-hide, a coat of tar and feathers, or some other corrective that you are in the habit of using.

I would not advise these punishments; in a free State they would not be practicable; but in States where such things are in constant use, it is rather surprising that some person has not thought of thus applying them.

Men who commit acts declared by the wh ole civilized world to be piracy, you permit to escape, while you say you will hang the man who circulate s Helper’s book. Before y complain of the free States, arrest and punish the scoundrels who so c ruelly tr eated the Irishman at Columbia, South Carolina, fbr no offene buat sayi ng that slavery w as d etr imental to free labor. Take from place and power the men whose hands and faces are reeking and smoking with the blood of our people in Kansas, and put them to death. Punish the thousands of others who have committed acts of violence against freeState men, and are yet unwhipped of justice.These thin gs you must do, before you complain of us. I t a ke no pleasure i n these criminations and recriminations. I know that a ll the States are a part of my country; but when I hear of the wrongs and outrages perpetrated on men merely because they will not subscribe to the doctrines you hold, and hear you complain of us for not doing our duty as citizens, I will let you know that you, too, ” are made of penetrable stuff.” I have I do not mean to interfere with any man’s legal or constitutional rights. The people of the slave States have tlite right to continue slaverythere if the y desire so to do. I h ave no right tc interfere with it. But I inten d to maintain my own rights. To draw an impassable line around slavery, anconfine it within its present limits; an absolut:: abolition of the African slave trade; the Terri tories to be kept free for homes for free menthese measures I regard as tbsolutely essentin to the perpetuation of this Government, and tc, the highest development of the Anglo-Saxo. race.

I have endeavored to show what slaver=is, what it has done. and what it intends to do I have also endeavored to show what are th aims and objects of the Republican party; an: if they cannot be tolerated-if such principle  cannot be sustained by the people ofany seetio. of this country-it is the misfortune of that pee ple. They are the principles that ought to b : sustained by all people that are fitted for -civ:. liberty; they are the principles on which th-‘ Government was founded; they were baptize in the best blood of this nation; they were cher ished by the greatest names that adorn th brightest pages of the history of our count, during its patriotic and virtuous and heroic a, They were emblazoned on every banner th waved over our army in every battle-field,-: the Revolution; during the storm and darknes they were the bright ” signet on the bosom. the cloud,” the rainbow of promise and of hop Publishkd by the Republican Congressional Committee. Price 50 cents per hundred. I ‘I lparned to, deride your fierce decree, Alid break, you on the wheel you meant for me.”

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