T KANSA HON. CHARLES SUMNER' OF MASSACHUSETTS. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 19, 1856. MONDAY, May 19, 1856. Mr. President: You are now called to redress a great transgression. Seldom in the history of nations has such a question been presented. army bills, navy bills, land bills, are important, and justly occupy your care; but these all belong to the course of •ordinary legislation. As means and instruments only, they are necessarily subordinate to the conservation of government itself. Grant them or deny them, in greater or less •degree, and you will inflict no shock. The machinery of government will continue to move. The State will not cease to exist. Far ■otherwise is it with the eminent question now before you, involving, as it does, liberty in a broad territory, and also involving the peace of the whole country with our good name in history for evermore. Take down your map, sir, and you will find that , the territory of Kansas, more than any other region, occupies the middle spot of North America, equally distant from the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west; from the frozen waters of Hudson’s Bay on ■ the north, and the tepid gulf stream on the south, constituting the precise territorial centre of the whole vast continent. To such advantage of situation, on the very highway between two oceans, are added a soil of unsurpassed richness, and a fascinating, undulating beauty a health-giving climate, calculated to nurture a powerful and vt surface, with t generous people, worthy to be a central pivot of American institutions. A few short months only have passed this spacious mediterranean country was only to the savage, who ran wild m ts a and prairies; and now it has already <1 more than Sparta contained when she ruled Greece, and sent forth her devoted children, quickened by a mother's benediction, to returr with their shields or on them; more than) Rome gathered on her seven hills, when, under her kings, she commenced that sove-| reign sway, which afterwards embraced the whole earth ; more than London held, when, on the fields of Crecy and Agincourt, the English banner was carried victoriously ovei the chivalrous hosts of France. Against this territory, thus fortunate in position and population, a crime has been committed, which is without example in the records of the past. Not in plundering provinces, nor in the cruelties of selfish governors will you find its parallel; and yet there is an ancient instance* which may show at least the path of justice. In the terrible impeachment by which the great Roman Orator has blasted through all time the name of Verres, amidst charges «f robbery and sacrilege, the enormity which most aroused the indignant voice of his accuser, and which still stands forth with strongest distinctness, arresting the sympathetic indignation of all who read the story, is,.that away in Sicily he had scourged a citizen of Rome—that the cry— u 1 am a Roman citizen,” had been interposed in vain against the lash of the tyrant governor. Other charges were, that he had carried away productions of art, and that he had violated the sacred shrines. It was in the presence of the Roman Senate that this arraignment proceeded; in a temple since of the Forum orator had e amidst crowds—such before drawn thronging the porticoes and the as no togetherto its bosom a population than Athens crowded w of ire। house-top colonnades, even and neighboring C 1 CJ and under the anxious gaz<k of witnesliberty f i or mankind on the in GOVERNOR SEWARD’S SPEECH.- limnediuU* Admission qf Kansas. is now readv ) per lbo».sand, $1U OU. of more Price per Dozen Copies 40c. : it Speech of Governor Seward. on the per dozen Orders inclosing the cash will be promptly ;
ence—the countless multitude of succeeding | the calm determination of their opponents, are enerations, in every land where eloquence 1 *’ ............. * 1 as been studied or where the Roman name as been recognized—has listened to the ac- usation, and throbbed with condemnation of ne criminal. I Sir, speaking in an age of light, and in a md of constitutional liberty, where the safe- uards of elections are justly placed among he highest triumphs of civilization, I fearless- Y assert that the wrongs of much abused icily, thus memorable in history, were small ►y the side of the wrongs of Kansas, where he very shrines of popular institutions, more acred than any heathen altar, have been esecrated; where the ballot-box, more pre- mus than any work, in ivory or marble, from he cunning hand of art, has been plundered; nd where the cry, “ I am an American citi- en,” has been interposed in vain against utrage of every kind, even upon life itself, ire you against sacrilege? I present it for our execration. Are you against robbery? hold it up to your scorn. Are you for the rotection of American citizens ? I show you ow their dearest rights have been cloven own, while a tyrannical usurpation has sought o install itself on their very necks ! But the wickedness which I now begin to xpose is immeasurably aggravated by the notive which prompted it. Notin any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy ave its origin. It is the rape of a virgin ter- itory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of lavery; and it may be clearly traced to a epraved longing for a new slave State, the ideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope f adding to the power of slavery in the ational government. sir: when the Hiole world, alike Christian and Turk, is ising up to condemn this wrong, and to make t a hissing to the nations, here in our repub- ic, force, aye, sir, FORCE—has been openly mployed in compelling Kansas to the pollu- ion of slavery, all for the sake of political ower. There is a simple fact, which you rill vainly attempt to deny, but which in tself presents an essential wickedness that nakes other public crimes seem like public irtues. But this enormity, vast beyond comparison, wells to dimensions of wickedness which the nagination toils in vain to grasp, when it is nderstood that for this purpose are hazarded he horrors of intestine feud, not only in this istant territory, but everywhere throughout io country. Already the muster has begun, he strife is no longer local, but national. wen now, while I speak, portents hang on all le arches of the horizon, threatening to 1 • o arken the broad land, which already yawns rith the mutterings of civil war. The fury of the propagandists of slavery, and now diffused from the distant territory over wide-spread communities, and the whole country, in all its extent—marshalling hostile divisions, and foreshadowing a strife, which, unless happily averted by the triumph of Freedom, will become war—fratricidal, parricidal war—with an accumulated wickedness beyond the wickedness of any war in human annals; justly provoking the avenging judgment of Providence and the avenging pen of history, and constituting a strife, in the language of the ancient writer, more than foreign, more than social, more than civil; but something compounded of all these strifes, and in itself more than war; sed potius commune quoddam ex omnibus et plus quam bellum. Such is the crime which you are to judge. But the criminal also must be dragged into day, that you may see and measure the power by which all this wrong is sustained. From no common source could it proceed. In its perpetration was needed a spirit of vaulting ambition which would hesitate at nothing; a hardihood of purpose which was insensible to the judgment of mankind; a madness for slavery which should disregard the Constitution, the laws, and all the great examples of our history; also a consciousness of power such as comes from the habit of power; a combination of energies found only in a hundred arms directed by a hundred eyes; a control of public opinion, through venal pens and a prostituted press; an ability to subsidize crowds in every vocation of life—the politician with his local importance, the lawyer with his subtle tongue, and even the authority of the judge on the bench ; and a familiar use of men in places high and low, so that none, from the President to the lowest border postmaster, should decline to be its tool; all these things and more were needed; and they wen found in the slave power of our republic There, sir, stands the criminal—all unmasked before you—heartless, grasping, and tyrannical—with an audacity beyond that of Verres, a subtlety beyond that of Machiavel, a meanness beyond that of Bacon, and an ability beyond that of Hastings. Justice to Kansas xjan be secured only by the prostration of this influence; for this is the power behind—greater than any President—which succors and sustains the crime. Nay, the proceedings I now arraign derive their fearful consequence only from this connection. In now opening this great matter, I am not insensible to the austere demands of the occasion ; but the dependence of the crime against Kansas upon theslave power is so peculiar and important, that I trust to be pardoned while I impress it by an illustration, which to some may seem trivial. It is related in Northern mythology, that the god of Force, visiting an
enchanted region, was challenged by his royal But, before entering upon the argan ent, entertainer to what seemed a humble feat I must say something of a general character of strength, merely, sir, to lift a cat from particularly in response to what has falle the ground. The god smiled at the challenge, from Senators who have raised themselves t and, calmly placing his hand under the belly eminence on this floor in championship of hr of the animal, with superhuman strength, man wrongs; I mean the Senator from Sout strove, while the back of the feline monster arched far upwards, even beyond reach, and one paw actually forsook the earth, until at last the discomfited divinity desisted ; but he was little surprised at his defeat, when he learned that this creature, which seemed to be a cat and nothing more, was not merely a cat, but that it belonged to and was a part of the great Terrestrial Serpent which, in its innumerable folds, encircled the Avhole globe. Even so the creature whose paws are now fastened upon Kansas, whatever it may seem to be, constitutes in reality a part of the slave power, which, with loathsome folds, is now coiled about the whole land. Thus do I expose the extent of the present contest, where we encounter not merely local resistance, but also the unconquered, sustaining arm behind. But out of the vastness of the crime attempted, with all its woe and shame, I derive a well- founded assurance of a commensurate vastness of effort against it, by the aroused masses of the country, determined, not only to vindicate right against wrong, but to redeem the Republic from the thraldom of that oligarchy which prompts, directs, and concentrates the distant wrong. ' Such is the crime, and such the criminal, which it is my duty in this debate to expose, And, by the blessing of God, this duty shall be done completely to the end. But this will not be enough. The apologies, which, with strange hardihood, have been offered for the crime, must be brushed away, so that it shall stand forth, without a single rag, or fig-leaf, to cover its vileness. And, finally, the true remedy must be shown. The subject is complex in its relations as it is transcendent in importance; and yet, if I am honored by your attention, I hope to exhibit it clearly in all its parts, while I conduct you to the inevitable conclusion, that Kansas must be admitted at once, with her present constitution, as a State of this Union, and give a newstar to the blue field of our national flag. And here 1 derive satisfaction from the thought, that the cause is so strong in itself as to bear even the infirmities of its advocates; nor can it require anything beyond that simplicity ot treatment and moderation of manner which I desire to cultivate. Its true character is such, that, like Hercules, it will conquer just so soon as it is recognized. My task will be divided under three different heads\Jlr*t, the Crime against Kansas, in its origin and extent; secondly y the Apologies kor the Crime ; and thirdly} the true Remedy. Carolina, [Mr. Butler,] and the Senator fror Illinois, [Mr. Douglas,] who, though unlike a Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, yet, like thi couple, sally forth together in the same cause The Senator from South Carolina has rea» ■ • 5 many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with sentiments of hono and courage. Of course he has chosen a mis tress to whom he has made his vows, am who, though ugly to others, is always loveb to him; though polluted in the sight of th* world, is chaste in his sight—I mean the bar lot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is alway profuse in words. Let her be impeached ii character, or any proposition made to shut he: out from the extension of her wantonness, am no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this Senator The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of hi; wench Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed The asserted rights of Slavery, which shoe/ equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fantasti claim of equality. If th-j slave States cannot enjoy what, in mockery of the great fathers o’ the Republic, he misnan.es equality under th( Constitution—in other words, the full powei in the National Territories to compel fellowmen to unpaid toil, to separate husband an^ wife, and to sell little children at the auction- block—then, sir, the chivalric Senator wil. conduct the State of S< uth Carolina out of the Union! Heroic knight! Exalted Senator! A second Moses come for a second exodus! But not content with this poor menace which we have been twice told was u measured," the Senator, ii the unrestrained chivalry of his nature, Las undertaken to apph opprobrious words to those who differ from him on this floor. ’ Ie calls them u sectional and fanaticaland opposition to the usurpa tion in Kansas, he denounces as u an uncalcu lating fanaticism.” To be sure, these charges lack all grace of or finality, and all sentiment of truth ; but the u 'venturous Senator does not hesitate. He is the uncompromising, unblushing representative on this floor of a flagrant sectionalism which now domineers ova * the Republic, : and yet with a ludicrous ignorance of his own position—unable to seo him- selt as others sot- him—or with an effrontery which even his white head ought not to proresist his sectionalism the very epithet which designates himself. The who strive to bring back the Government to its original policy, when Freedom and not Slavery was national, while Slavery and wot Freedom was
4 ptkmal, lie arraigns as sectional. This will t do. It involves too great a perversion of rms. I tell that Senator, that it is to him- f, and to the “ organization ” of which he is b u committed advocate,” that this epithet longs. I now fasten it upon them. For rself, I care little for names; but since the estion has been raised here, I affirm that the publican party of the Union is in no just ase sectional, but, more than any other party, \tional; and that it now goes forth to dis- Ige from the high places of the Government b tyrannical sectionalism of which the Sen- kr from South Carolina is one of the mad- st zealots. To the charge of fanaticism I also reply. \ fanaticism is found in an enthusiasm or riggeration of opinions, particularly on reli- !»us subjects ; but there may be a fanaticism evil as well as for good. Now, I will not ly, that there are persons among us loving perty too well for their personal good, in a fish generation. Such there may be, and, the sake of their example, would that there re more ! In calling them “ fanatics,” you (t contumely upon the noble army of mar- Js, from the earliest day down to this hour; on the great tribunes of human rights, by ’om life, liberty, and happiness, on earth, ze been secured ; upon the long line of de- ’ed patriots, who, throughout history, have ly loved their country; and, upon all, who, hoble aspirations for the general good, and ^orgetfulness of self, have stood out before dr age, and gathered into their generous .oms the shafts of tyranny and wrong, in er to make a pathway for Truth. You dis- dit Luther, when alone he nailed his arti- 3 to the door of the church at Wittenberg, il then, to the imperial demand that he uld retract, firmly replied, u Here I stand; mnot do otherwise, so help me God!” You Credit Hampden, when alone he refused to the few shillings of ship-money, and shook ’ throne of Charles I.: you discredit Milton, 7 7 en, amidst the corruptions of a heartless art, he lived on, the lofty friend of Liberty, •ve question or s’Vpicion; you discredit ssell and Sidnev. ;vnen, for the sake of their Jntry, they calmly turned from family and nds, to tread the narrow steps of the scaf- 1; yon discredit the early founders of terican institutions, who preferred thehard- ps of a wilderness, surrounded by a savage । to injustice on beds of ease; you discredit , later fathers, who, few in numbers and ,1k in resources, yet strong in their cause, ; not hesitate to brave the mighty power of gland, already encircling the globe with her Tning drum-beats. Yes, sir, of such are ' fanatics of history, according to the SenaBut I tell that Senator, that there are 7 7 \racters badly eminent, of whose fanaticism there can be no question. Such were the ancient Egyptians, who worshipped divinities in brutish forms; the Druids, who darkened the- forests of oak, in which they lived, by sacrifices of blood; the Mexicans, who surrendered countless victims to the propitiation of their obscene idols; the Spaniards, who, under Alva, sought to force the Inquisition upon Holland, by a tyranny kindred to that now employed to force Slavery upon Kansas ; and such were the Algerines, when in solemn conclave, after listening to a speech not unlike* that of the Senator from South Carolina, they resolved to continue the slavery of whiter Christians, and to extend it to the countrymen - * of Washington! Aye, sir, extend it! And in this same dreary catalogue, faithful history must record all who now, in an enlightened age, and in a land of boasted Freedom, stand up, in perversion of the Constitution, and in denial of immortal truth, to fasten a new shackle upon their fellow-man. If the Senator wishes to see fanatics, let him look round among his own associates; let him look at* himself. But I have not done with the Senator.. There is another matter regarded by him of such consequence, that he interpolated it into the speech of the Senator from New Hampshire, [Mr. Hale,] and also announced that he had prepared himself with it, to take in his pocket all the way to Boston, when he expected to address the people of that community. On. this account, and for the sake of truth, I stop for one moment, and tread it to the earth. The North, according to the Senator, was engaged in the slave trade, and helped to introduce slaves into the Southern States; and this undeniable fact he proposed to establish by statistics, in stating which his errors surpassed his sentences in number. But I let these pass for the present, that I may deal with his argument. Pray, sir, is the acknowledged turpitude of a departed generation to become an example for us ? And yet the suggestion of the Senator, if entitled to any consideration in this discussion, must have this extent. I join my friend from New Hampshire in thanking the Senator from South Carolina for adducing this instance; for it gives me an opportunity to say, that the Northern merchants, with homes in Boston, Bristol, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, who catered for Slavery during the years of the slave trade, are the lineal progenitors of the Northern men, with homes in O 7 these places, who lend themselves to Slavery in our day; and especially that all, whether North or South, who take part, directly or indirectly, in the conspiracy against Kansas, do but continue the work of the slave-traders, which you condemn. It is true, too true, alas! that our fathers were engaged in this traffic; but that is no apology for it. 2Yndin
repelling the authority of this example, I repel also the trite argument founded on the earlier example of England. It is true that our mother country, at the peace of Utrecht, extorted from Spain the Assiento Contract, securing the monopoly of the slave trade with I man; against him is an immortal princip the Spanish Colonies, as the whole price of all | With finite power he wrestles with the infinil the blood of great victories; that she higgled and he must fall. Against him are strond at Aix-la-Chapelle for another lease of this battalions than any marshaled by mortal a? exclusive traffic; and again, at the treaty of Madrid, clung to the wretched piracy. true, that in this spirit the power of the mother nature in all her subtle forces; against him country was prostituted to the same base ends in her American Colonies, against indignant protests from our fathers. All these things now rise up in judgment against her. Let us not follow the Senator from South Carolina to do the very evil to-day, which in another generation we condemn. As the Senator from South Carolina is the Don Quixote, the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas] is the squire of Slavery, its very Sancho Panza, ready to do all its humiliating offices. This Senator, in his labored address, vindicating his labored report—piling one mass of elaborate error upon another mass—constrained himself. as you will remember, to unfamiliar decencies of speech. Of that address J have nothing to say at this moment, though before'! sit down I shall show something of its fallacies. But I go back now to an earlier occasion, when, true to his native impulses, he threw into this discussion, “for a charm of powerful trouble,” personalities most discrei ditable to this body. I will not stop to repel tab imputations which he cast upon myself; but I mention them to remind you of the “sweltered, venom sleeping got,” which, with I The occasion requires it from the beginnin other poisoned ingredients, he cast into the I' ’ ’ ” ' ‘ It has been well remarked by a distinguish- pl other tilings I historian of our country, that, at the Ithuri . " " ' touch of the Missouri discussion, the slave i ue<l his rescript, requiring submission to the terest hitherto hardly recognized as a distinl m-ped Power ot Kansas; and this was element in our system, started up portentous ai xmipanied by a manner—all his own—such dilated, with threats and assumptions whid befits the tyrannical threat. Very well, are the origin of our existing national politic I tell him now that he This was in 1820. The discussion ended wit any such submission. The the admission of Missouri as a slaveholdii Power at his back, is State, and the prohibition of Slavery in i „....... ."’P'V1’ ’ g territory west of the Missi He shrinks from noth- sippi, and north of 36° 30', leaving the cond Like Danton, he may cry, “ Vaudace! tion of other territories south of this line < toujours I'awlace! ' but even his subsequently acquired, untouched bv tl The arrangeinent. Here was a solemn act c who, with legislation, called at the time a compromise 1 t i 14- __________ . I cauldron of this debate. Standing on this floor, the Senator IOC i Senator t cannot Seuatm enforce but he is not strong enough for this the remainin Ue is bold. imr compass this work. DCmator copies th 4 I British officer, >aid that with the hilt of his tword lie would cram the stamps ” down the md he will similar failure / with civil 1 American peopl He may convulse this 1. Like the ancient madman, lie may set tire to this vast Temple of Constitutional Liberty, grander than Ephesian dome; but he cannot enforce obedience Lu that tyrannical Usurpation. The Senator dreams that he can subdue t North. He disclaims the open threat, but 1 conduct still implies it. How little tl Senator knows himself, or the strength of t cause which he persecutes ! He is but a mor. —the inborn, ineradicable, invincible sea; It is ments of the human heart: against him 7 O । God. Let him try to subdue these. But I pass from these things, which, thou belonging to the very heart of the discussid are yet preliminary in character, and press once to the main question. I 1. It belongs to me now, in the first pla; to expose the Crime against Kansas, in j origin and extent. Logically, this is 1 beginning of the argument. I say Crime, d deliberately adopt this strongest term, as b| ter than any other denoting the consuming transgression. 1 would go further, if langur; could further go. It is the Crime of Grin —surpassing far the old crimen maj estat pursued with vengeance by the laws of Bon and containing all the crimes, as the greai contains the less. I do not go too far, whei call it the Crime against Nature, from whi the soul recoils, and which language refuses describe. To lay bare this enormity, I nc proceed. The whole subject has already I come a twice-told tale, and its renewed recii will be a renewal of its sorrow and sham but I shall not hesitate to enter' upon Mr. covenant, a compact, first brought forward i this body by a slaveholder—vindicated b slaveholders in debate—finally sanctioned b slaveholding votes—also upheld at the tim by the essential approbation of a slaveholdin President, James Monroe, and his Cabinet, o whom a majority were slaveholders, including Calhoun himself; and this compromis was made the condition of the admission o:
issouri, without which that State could not ive been received into the Union. The bar- Lin was simple, and was applicable, of course, fly to the territory named. Leaving all the her territory to await the judgment of bother generation, the South said to the orth, Conquer your prejudices so far as to Imit Missouri as a slave State, and, in consi- sration of this much-coveted boon, slavery tall be prohibited forever in all the remain- g Louisiana Territory above 36° 30': and •/ 7 ie North yielded. In total disregard of history, the President, his annual message, has told us that this >mpromise u was reluctantly acquiesced in by ie Southern States.” Just the contrary is ue. It was the work of slaveholders, and as crowded by their concurring votes upon .reluctant North. At the time it was hailed 7 slaveholders as a vicotry. Charles Pi nek- jy, of South Carolina, in an oft-quoted let- r, written at three o’clock on the night of the At e North it was accepted as a defeat, and the iends of Freedom o very where throughout ;e country bowed their heads with mortifi- ,tion. But little did they know the com- eteness of their disaster. Little did they •earn that the prohibition of Slavery in the erritory, which was stipulated as the price ' iheir fatal capitulation, would also at the very p passage, says, “ It is considered here by iveholding States as a great triumph.” ‘oment of its maturity be wrested from them. Time passed, and it became necessary to pro- ■de for this Territory an organized Govern- .ent, Suddenly, without notice in the public •ess, or the prayer of a single petition, or (ie word of public recommendation from the resident—after an acquiescence of thirty- |ree years, and the irreclaimable possession y the South of its special share under this ’mpromise—in violation of every obligation of mor, compact, and good neighborhood—and • contemptuous disregard of the out-gushing ntiments of an aroused North, this time- snored prohibition, in itself a Landmark of •eedom, was overturned, and the vast region \>w known as Kansas and Nebraska was ^ewed to Slavery. It was natural that a ensure thus repugnant in character should 5 pressed by arguments mutually repugnant. । was urged on two principal reasons, so ophite and inconsistent as to slap each other - the face—one being that, by the repeal of e prohibition, the Territory would be left h)en to the entry of slaveholders with their •ives, without hindrance; and .the other ing. that the people would be left absolutely tc determine the question for themselves, jd rc prohibit the entry of slaveholders with eir slaves, if they should think best. With me, the apology was the alleged rights of "iveliolders; with others, it was the alleged J r / rights of the people. With some, it wag openly the extension of Slavery; and wit! others, it was openly the establishment of Freedom, under the guise of Popular Sovereignty. Of course, the measure, thus upheld in defiance of reason, was carried through Congress in defiance of all the securities of legislation: and I mention these things that you may see in what foulness the - present crime was engendered. It was carried, first, by shipping in to its support, through Executive influence and patronage, men who acted against their own declared judgment and the known will of their constituents. Secondly, by foisting out of place, both in the Senate and House of Representa- ■' tives, important business, long pending, and usurping its room. Thirdly by trampling under foot the rules of the House of Representatives, always before the safeguard of the minority. And Fourthly, by driving it to a close during the very session in which it originated, so that it might not be arrested by the indignant voice of the People. Such are some of the means by which this snap-judgment was obtained. If the clear will of the People had not been disregarded, it could not have passed. If the government had not nefariously interposed its influence, it could not have passed. If it had been left to its natural place in the order of business, it could not have passed. If the rules of the House and the rights of the minority had not been violated, it could not have passed. If it had been allowed to go over to another Congress, when the People might be heard, it would have ended; and then the C' Ine we now deplore, would have been withot its first seminal life. Mr. President, I mean to keep absolutely within the limits of parliamentary propriety. I make no personal imputations; but only with frankness, such as belongs to the occasion and my own character, describe a great historical act, which is now enrolled in the Capitol. Sir, the Nebraska Bill was in every respect a swindle. It was a swindle by the Soutji of the North. It was, on the part of those who had already completely enjoyed their share of the Missouri Compromise, a swindle of those whose share was vet abso- v lutely untouched; and the plea of unconstitu- tionality set up—like the plea of usury after the borrowed money has been enjoyed—did not make it less a swindle. Urged as a Bill of Peace, it was a swindle of the whole country. Urged as opening the doors to slave-masters with their slaves, it was a swindle of the asserted doctrine of Popular Sovereignty. Urged as sanctioning Popular Sovereignty, it was a swindle of the asserted rights of slave-masters. It was a swindle of a broad territory, thus cheated of protection against Slavery. It was a swindle of a great cause, early espoused by
Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, surrounded by the best fathers of the Republic. Sir, it was a swindle of God-given inalienable Rights. Turn it over; look at it on all sides, and it is everywhere a swindle; and, if the word I now employ has not the authority of classical usage, it has, on this occasion, the indubitable authority of fitness. No other word will adequately express the mingled meanness and wickedness of the cheat. Its character was still further apparent in the general structure of the bill. Amidst overflowing professions of regard for the sovereignty of the People in the Territory, they were despoiled of every essential privilege of Sovereignty. They were not allowed to choose their Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, Associate Justices, Attorney, or Marshal—all of whom are sent from Washington; nor were ‘hey allowed to regulate the salaries of any of these functionaries, or the daily allowance of the legislative body, or even *the pay of the clerks and doorkeepers; but they were left free .to adopt Slavery. And this was called Popular Sovereignty! Time does not allow, nor does the occasion require, that I should stop to dwell on this transparent device to cover a transcendent wrong. Suffice it to say, that Slavery is in itself an arrogant denial of Human Rights, and by no human reason can the power to establish such a wrong be placed umong the attributes of any just sovereignty. In refusing it such a place, I do not deny popular rights, but uphold them; I do not restrain popular rights, but extend them. And/sir, to this conclusion you must yet come, unless deaf, not only to the admonitions of political justice, but also to the genius of our own Constitution, under which, when properly interpreted, no valid claim for Slavery can be set up anywhere in the National territory. The Senator from Michigan [Mr. Cass] may say, in response to the Senator from Mississippi, [^r- Brown] that Slavery cannot go into the Territory under the Constitution, without legislative introduction; and permit me to add, in response to both, that Slavery lannot go there at all. Nothing can come out if nothing ; and there is absolutely nothing in ihe Constitution out of which Slavery can be derived, while there are provisions, which, when properly interpreted, make its existence anywhere within the exclusive national jurisdiction impossible. The offensive provision in the bill was in its form a legislative anomaly, utterly wanting the natural directness and simplicity of an honest transaction. It did not undertake openly to repeal the old Prohibition of Slavery, but seemed to mince the matter, as if consci- us of the swindle. It said that this Prohibi- nm, “being inconsistent with the principle uf non-intervention by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territoiies, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared in-: operative and void.” Thus, with insidious! ostentation, was it pretended that an act, vio-J lating the greatest compromise of our legislative history, and setting loose the foundations of all compromise, was derived out of a com-! promise. Then followed in the Bill the further declaration, which is entirely without precedent, and which has been aptly called, “a stump speech in its belly,” namely : “it being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, | nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the oeople thereof perfectly free to form and regu-’ \ate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.” Here were smooth words, such as belong to a cunning tongue enlisted in a bad cause. But whatever may have been their various hidden meanings, this at least was evident, that, by their effect, the Congressional Prohibition of Slavery, which had always been regarded as a seven-fold shield, covering the whole Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30’, was now removed, while a principle was declared, which would render the supplementary Prohibition of Slavery in Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, “inoperative and void,” and thus open to Slavery all these vast regions, now the rude cradles of mighty States. Here you see the magnitude of the mischief] contemplated. But my purpose now is with the Crime against Kansas, and I shall not stop to expose the conspiracy beyond. | Mr. President, men are wisely presumed to intend the natural consequences of their conduct, and to seek what their acts seem to promote. Now, the Nebraska Bill, on its very face, openly cleared the way for Slavery, and it is not wrong to presume that its originators] intended the natural consequences of such an act, and sought in this way to extend.Slavery! Of course, they did. And this is the first stag J in the crime against Kansas. I But this was speedily followed by other de-l velopments. The bare-faced scheme was soon whispered, that Kansas must be a Slave State] In conformity with this idea was the governJ ment of this unhappy territory organized in all its departments; and thus did the President, complicity—£ of connivance ing to the conspirators a lease imounting even to copartner with a whole caucus IHH io Slavery, jno man, wun me scmimeuis _ V of Washington, or Jefferson, or Frankind
■und any favor; nor is it too much to ■y, that, had these great patriots once more line among us, not one of them, with his ■corded unretracted opinions on Slavery, ■>uld have been nominated by the President or Bnfirmed by the Senate for any post in that ■rritory. With such auspices the conspiracy ■oceeded. Even in advance of the Nebraska Illi, secret societies were organized in Missouri, ■tensibly to protect her institutions, and after- lards, under the name of “ Self-Defensive As- Bciations,” and of u Blue Lodges,” these were lultip]ied throughout the western counties of I at State, before any count er-movement from le North. It was confidently anticipated, that r the activity of these societies, and the inte- Ist of slaveholders everywhere, with the ad- Itntages derived from the neighborhood of rissouri, and the influence of the Territorial pvernment, Slavery might be introduced into lansas, quietly but surely, without arousing Iconflict—that the crocodile egg might be palthily dropped in the sun-burnt soil, there I be hatched unobserved until it sent forth its Iptile monster. I But the conspiracy was unexpectedly balked, lie debate which convulsed Congress, had I rred the whole country. Attention from all [les was directed upon Kansas, which at once Lcame the favorite goal of emigration. The 1 11 bad loudly declared, that its object was Lo leave the people perfectly free to form Ld regulate their domestic institutions in their |ivn wayand its supporters everywhere chal- luged the determination of the question be- been Freedom and Slavery by a competition I emigration. Thus, while opening the Terri- I ry to Slavery, the bill also opened it to emi- bants from every quarter, who might by their btes redress the wrong. The populous North, Hung by a sharp sense of outrage, and inspir- H by a noble cause, poured into the debatable p nd, and promised soon to establish a supre- lacy of numbers there, involving, of course, i just supremacy of Freedom. ' Then was conceived the consummation of the What could not be mine against Kansas. Mcomplished peaceably, was to be accom- kished forcibly. The reptile monster, that puld not be quietly and securely hatched [aere, was to be pushed full-grown into the territory. All efforts were now given to the ’ ismal work of forcing Slavery on Free Soil, h flagrant derogation of the very Popular Sovereignty, whose name helped to impose I'hs Bill upon the country, the atrocious object was now distinctly avowed. \And the . vowal has been followed by the act. Slavery ^as been forcibly introduced into Kansas, and laced under the formal safeguards of pre- : mded law. 7 he argument. In depictin How this was done, belongs to this consummation, the simplest outline, without one word of color, will be best. Whether regarded in its mass or its details, in its origin or its results, it is all blackness, illumined by nothing from itself, but only by the heroism of the undaunted men and women, whom it environed. A plain statement of facts will be a picture of fearful truth, which faithful history will preserve in its darkest gallery. In the foreground all will _ recognize a familiar character, in himself a connecting link between the President and the border ruffian—less conspicuous for ability than for the exalted place he has occupied— who once sat in the seat where you now sit, sir; -where once sat John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; also, where once sat Aaron Burr. • I need not add the name of David R. Atchison. You have not forgotten that, at the session of Congress immediately succeeding the Nebraska Bill, he came tardily to his duty here, and then, after a short time, disappeared. The secret has been long since disclosed. Like Catiline, he stalled into this Chamber reeking with conspiracy—immo in Senatum xenit^ —and then like Catiline he skulked away— al)iit, excess it, ex as it, erupit—to join and provoke the conspirators, who at a distance awaited their congenial chief. Under the influence of his malign presence the Crime ripened to its Altai fruits, while the similitude with Catiline was again renewed in the sym-. pathy, not even concealed, which he found in the very Senate itself, where, beyond even the Roman example, a Senator has not hesitated to appear as his open compurgator. And now, as I proceed to show the way in which this Territory was overrun and finally subjugated to Slavery, I desire to remove in advance all question with regard to the authority on which I rely. The evidence is secondary ; but it is the best which, in the nature of the case, can be had, and it is not less clear, direct, and peremptory, than any by which w^ are assured of the campaigns in the Crimea or the fall of Sevastopol. In its manifold mass, I confidently assert, that it is such a body of evidence as the human mind is not able io resist. It is found in the concurring reports of the public press; in the letters of correspondents ; in the testimony of travellers ; and - in the unaffected story to which I have listened from leading citizens, who, during this winter, have u come flocking” here from that distant I Territory. It breaks forth in the irrepressible outcry, reaching us from Kansas, in truthful tones* which leave no ground of mistake.. It addresses us in formal complaints, instinct with the indignation of a people determined to be free, and unimpeachable as the declarations of a murdered man on his dying bed against his murderer. I begin with an admission from the President himself, in whose sight the people of
further to illustrate the irony of the name they assumed, seized the friend of the murdered man, whose few neighbors soon rallied for his rescue. This transaction, though totally disregarded in its chief front of wickedness, became the excuse for unprecedented excitement. The weak Governor, with no faculty higher than servility to Slavery—whom the President, in his official delinquency, had appointed to a trust worthy only of a well-balanced character —was frightened from his propriety. By proclamation he invoked the Territory. By telegraph he invoked the President. * The Territory would not respond to his senseless appeal. The President was dumb; but the proclamation was circulated throughout the border bounties of Missouri; and Platte, Clay, Carlisle, Sabine, Howard, and Jefferson, each of them, contributed a volunteer company, recruited from the road sides, and armed with • * weapons which chance afforded—known as the “shot-gun militia”—with a Missouri )fficer as commissary general, dispensing radons, and another Missouri officer as general- n-chief; with two wagon loads of rifles, pelonging to Missouri, drawn by six mules, rom its arsenal at Jefferson City; with seven pieces of cannon, belonging to the United States, from its arsenal at Liberty; and this prmidable force, amounting to at least 1,800 .nen, terrible with threats, with oaths, and with whisky, crossed the borders, and encamp- i(d in larger part at Wacherusa, over against Sie doomed town of Lawrence, which was now hreatened with destruction. With these invaders was the Governor, who by this act levied fyar upon the people he was sent to protect, fe camp with him was the original Catiline of fee conspiracy, while by his side was the ^ocile Chief Justice and the docile Judges, put this is not the first instance in which an (njust Governor has found tools where he flught to have found justice. In the great im- jeachment of Warren Hastings, the British r.rator, by whom it was conducted, exclaims, j.i words strictly applicable to the misdeed I few arraign, 11 Had he not the Chief Justice, ye tame and domesticated Chief Justice, who f/aited on him like a familiar spirit?” Thus qas this invasion countenanced by those who rtould have stood in the breach against it. Lor more than a week it continued, while deadly conflict seemed imminent. I do not /(veil on the heroism by which it was encoun- Lred, or the mean retreat to which it was impelled; for that is not necessary to exhibit f e Crime which you are to judge. But I | jnnot forbear to add other additional features, ’ rnished in the letter of a clergymen, written y the time, who saw and was a part of what describes : H Our citizens have been shot at, and in two instances fH'dered, our houses invaded, hay-ricks burnt, corn and other provisions plundered, cattle driven off, all communication cut off between us and the States, wagons on the way to us with provisions stopped and plundered, and the drivers taken prisoners, and we in hourly expectation of an attack. 3 early every man has been in arms in the village. Fortifications have been thrown up, by incessant labor night and day. The sound of the drum and the tramp of armed men resounded through our streets, families fleeing with their household goods for safety. Pay before yesterday, the report of cannon was heard at our house from the direction of Lecompton. Last Thursday, one of our neighbors —one of the most peaceable and excellent of men, from Ohio—on his way home, was set upon by a ga?g of twelve men on horseback, and shot down. Over eight hundred men are gathered under arms at Lawrence. As yet, no act of violence has been perpetrated by those on our side. No blood, of retaliation stains our hands. We stand and are ready to act purely in the defe/nce of our homes and lives V But the catalogue is not yet complete. On the 15th of December, when the people assembled to vote on the Constitution then submitted for adoption—only a few days after the Treaty of Peace between the Governor on the one side and the town of Lawrence on the other—another irruption was made into this unhappy Territory. But I leave all this un< told. Enough of these details has been given. Five several times and more have these invaders entered Kansas in armed array, and thus five times and more have they trampled upon the organic law of the Territory. But these extraordinary expeditions are simply the extraordinary witnesses to successive uninterrupted violence. They stand out conspicuous but not alone. The spirit of evil, in which they had their origin, was wakeful and incessant. From the beginning, it hung upon the skirts of this interesting Territory, harrowing its peace, disturbing its prosperity, and keeping its inhabitants under the painful alarms of war. Thus was all security of person, of property, and of labor, overthrown; and when I urge this incontrovertible fact, I set forth a wrong, which is small only by the side of the giant wrong, for the consummation of which all this was done. Sir, what is man—what is government—without security; in the absence of which, nor man nor government can proceed in development or enjoy the fruits of existence? Without security, civilization is cramped and dwarfed. Without security there can he no true Freedom. Nor shall I say too much, when I declare that security, guarded of course by its offspring, Freedom, is the true end and aim of government. Of this indispensable boon the people of Kansas have thus far been despoiled—absolutely, totally. All this is aggravated by the nature of their pursuits, rendering them peculiarly sensitive to interruption, and at the same time attesting, their innocence. They are for the most part engaged in the cultivation of the soil, which from time immemorial has been the sweet employment of undisturbed industry. Contented in the returns of bounteous nature and the shade of his own trees, the husbandman is not aggressive; accustomed to produce, and
11 not to destroy, he is essentially peaceful, unless his home is invaded, when his arm derives vigor from the soil he treads, and his soul inspiration from the heavens beneath whose canopy he daily walks. And such are the people of Kansas, whose Security has been overthrown. Scenes from which civilization .averts her countenance have been a part of their daily life. The border incursions, which, in barbarous ages or barbarous lands, have fretted and “harried” an exposed people, have been here renewed, with this peculiarity, that our border robbers do not simply levy black mail and drive off a few cattle, like those who acted under the inspiration of the Douglas of other days; that they do not seize k lew persons, and sweep them away into Captivity, like the African slave-traders whom brand as pirates; but that they commit a succession of acts, in which all border sorrows and all African wrongs are revived together on American soil, and which for the time being annuls all protection of all kinds, and enslaves the whole Territory. • Private griefs mingle their poignancy with public wrongs. 1 do not dwell on the anxieties which families have undergone, exposed to sudden assault, and obliged to lie down to rest with the alarms of war ringing in their ears, not kiiowng that another day might be spared to them. Throughout this bitter winter, with \he thermometer at 30 degrees below zero, the citizens of Lawrence have been constrained to deep under arms, with sentinels treading their constant watch against surprise. But our jouls are wrung by individual instances. In rain do we condemn the cruelties of another age—the refinements of torture to which men have been doomed—the rack and thumb-screw of the Inquisition, the last agonies of the regicide Ravaillac—“Luke’s iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel1 —for kindred outrages have disgraced these borders. Murder has stalked—assassination has skulked in the tall grass of the prairie, and the vindictiveness of nan has assumed unwonted forms. A preacher bf the Gospel of the Saviour has been ridden on u rail, and then thrown into the Missouri, lastened to a log, and left to drift down its muddy, tortuous current. And lately we have had the tidings of that enormity without precedence—a deed without a name—where a candidate of the Legislature was most brutally gashed with knives and hatchets, and then, alter weltering in blood on the snow-clad earth, was trundled along with gaping wounds, to fall dead in the face of his wife. It is common to drop a tear of sympathy over the trembling solicitudes of our early fathers, exposed to the stealthy assault of the savage foe; und an eminent American artist has pictured this scene in a marble group of rare beauty, on the front of the National (Capitol, where the uplifted towahawk is arrested b the strong arm and generous countenance d the pioneer, while his wife and children fin shelter at his feet; but now the tear must If dropped over the trembling solicitudes < fellow-citizens, seeking to build a new Sta in Kansas, and exposed to the perpetu assault of murderous robbers from Missoni Hirelings, picked from the drunken spew ai vomit of an uneasy civilization—in the for of men— Aye, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds and gray-hounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Sloughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are called All by the name of dogs; I * leashed together by secret signs and lodgs I have renewed the incredible atrocities of tl Assassins and of the Thugs; showing tf blind submission of the Assassins to the 0 I Man of the Mountain, in robbing Christians < the road to Jerusalem, and showing the heai lessness of the Thugs, who, avowing that mq I der was their religion, waylaid travellers ( the great road from Agra to Delhi; with ti more deadly bowie-knife for the dagger of tl Assassin, and the more deadly revolver for t noose of the Thug. In these invasions, attended by the enti subversion of all Security in this Territoi) with the plunder of the ballot-box, and t pollution of the electoral franchise, I simply the process in unprecedented Crin If that be the best Government, where ; injury to a single citizen is resented as an i jury to the whole State, then must our Go ernment forfeit all claim to any such en nence, while it leaves its citizens thus expose In the outrage upon the ballot-box, even wit out the illicit fruits which I shall soon expoj there is a peculiar crime of the deepest dj though subordinate to the final Crime, whi should be promptly avenged, where royalty i<upheld, it is a s In countr pecial often to rob the crown jewels, which are the emblei of that sovereignty before which the loj subject bows, and it is treason to be found | adultery with the Queen, for in this way m a false heir be imposed upon the State ; but' our Republic the ballot-box is the single pri< less jewel of that sovereignty which we ] spect, and the electoral franchise, out of whi are born the rulers of a free people, is t Queen whom whom we are to guard agaii pollution. In this plain presentment, whet! as regards Security, or as regards Electio there is enough, surely, without proceeds furthei•, to justify the intervention of C< most promptly and completely, to thn his oppressed people the impenetral shield of the Constitution and laws, half is not yet told. But 1 As every point in a wide-spread horia l radiates from a common centre, so everyth!
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