29 , in its valiant struggle against Was opposed—like the petitions of Kansas—because that by the example of Kansas body “ was assembled without any requisition on the part oppression, and in the development of a new science of emi- of the Supreme Power.” Another petition from New York, presented by Edmund Burke, was flatly rejected, as claiming rights derogatory to Parliament. And still another petition from Massachusetts Bay was dismissed as “ vexatious and scandalous,” while the patriot philosopher who bore it was exposed to peculiar contumely. Throughout the debates, cur fathers were made the butt of sorry jests and supercilious assumptions. And now these scenes, with these premise objections, have been renewed in the American Senate. With regret, I come again upon the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler], who, omnipresent in this debate, overflowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied for admission as a State; and, with incoherent phrases, discharged the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon her representative, and then upon her people. There was no extravagance of the ancient Parliamentary debate which he did not repeat; nor was there any possible deviation from truth whjeh he did not make, with so much > i passion, I am glad to add, as to save him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the Senator touches nothing which he does not disfigure—with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether in the details of statistics or the diversions of scholarship. He cannot ope his mouth, but out there fl a blunder. Surely he ought to be familiar with the life of Franklin; and yet he referred to his household character, while acting as agent of our fathers in England, as above -u^picion: and this was done that he might give point to a false contrast with the agent of Kansas—not knowing that, however they may differ in genius and fame, in this experience they are alike: that Franklin, when intrusted with the petition of Massachusetts Bay, was assaulted by a foul- mouthed speaker, where he could not be heard in defense, and denounced as a “ thief,” even as the agent of Kansas has been assaulted on this floor, and denounced as a “ forger.” And let not the vanity of the Senator be inspired by the parallel with the British statesmen of that day; for ii is only in hostility to Freedom that any parallel can be recognized. Bik it is against the people of Kansas that the sensibilities of the Senator are particularly aroused. Coming, as he announces, “from a State”—ay, sir, from South Carolina— he turns with lordly disgust from this newly-formed community, which he will not recognize even as “a body-politic.” Pray, sir, by what title does he indulge in this egotism? Has he r6ad the history of “ the State ” which he represents? He cannot surely have forgotten its shameful imbecility from Slavery, confessed throughout’the revolution, followed by its more shameful assumptions for Slavery since. He cannot have forgotten its wretched persistence in the slave trade as the very apple of its eye, and the condition of its participation in the Union. He cannot have forgotten its Constitution, which is republican only in name, confirming power in the hands of the few, and founding the qualifications of its legislators on “ a settled freehold estate and ten gration. Already in Lawrence alone there are newspapers I and schools, including a High School, and throughout this I infant Territory there is more mature scholarship far, in proportion to its inhabitants, than in all South Carolina. Ah, sir, I tell the Senator that Kansas, welcomed as a free State, will be a “ministering angel” to the Republic, when I South Carolina, in the cloak of darkness which she hugs, “ lies howling.” The Senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas], naturally joins the Senator from South Carolina in this warfare, and gives to it the superior intensity of his nature. He thinks that the National Government has not completely proved its power, as it has never hanged a traitor ; but, if the occasion requires, he hopes there will be no hesitation ; and this threat is directed at Kansas, and even at the friends of Kansas throughout the country. Again occurs the parallel with the struggles of our Fathers, and I borrow the language of Patrick Henry, when, to the cry from the Senator, of “ treason,” “ treason,” I reply, “ if this be treason, make the most of it.” Sir, it is easy to call names; but I beg to tell the Senator that if the word “ traitor ” is in any way applicable to those who refuse submission to a tyrannical Usurpation, whether in Kansas or elsewhere, then must some new word, of deeper color, be invented, to designate those mad spirits who would endanger and degrade the Republic, while they betray all the cherished sentiments of the Fathers and the spirit of the Constitution, in order to give new spread to slavery. Let the Senator proceed. It will not be the first time in history, that a scaffold erected for punishment has become a pedestal of honor. Out of death comes life, and the “ traitor ” whom he blindly executes will live immortal in the cause. “ For ITumanity sweeps onward ; where to-day the martyr stands, On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands; While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return, To glean up the scattered ashes into History’s golden urn.” And yet the Senator, to whom that “State ” has in part committed the guardianship of its good name, in- stead of moving, with backward treading steps, to cover its edness, rushes forward in the very ecstasy to expose it by provoking a comparison South Carolina is old ; Kansas is young, counts by centuries, ~ negroes. i of madness, with Kansas. South Carolina But a where Kansas counts by years, beneficent example may be born in a day: bay, that against the two centuries of the older “ State,” may be already set the two years of trial, evolving corresponding virtue, in the younger community. Xb. a. B * * A * A _ ; and 1 venture to In the one is in the other, the hymns of Freedom. And if we glance _ _ ,____ lv w ddiijult to find anything in the history of South Carolina which presents so much of heroic spirit in an heroic cause as appears in that repulse of the Missouri invaders by the I- 1 aguered town of Lawrence, where even the women gave their eilective efforts to Freedom. The matrons of Rume, who poured their jewels into the treasury for the public deAmong these hostile Senators, there is yet another, with all the prejudices of the Senator from South Carolina, but without his generous impulses, who, on account of his character before the country, and the rancor of his opposition, deserves to be named. I mean the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. Mason] who, as the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, has associated himself with a special act of inhumanity and tyranny. Of him I shall say little, for he has said little in this debate, though within that little was compressed the bitterness of a life absorbed in the support of Slavery. He holds the commission of Virginia; but he does not represent that early Virginia, so dear to our hearts, which gave to us the pen of Jefferson, by which the equality of men wras declared, and the sword of Washington, by which Independence was secured ; but he represents that other Virginia, from which Washington and Jefferson now avert their faces, where human beings are bred as cattle for the shambles, and where a dungeon rewards the pious matron who teaches little children to relieve their bondage by reading the Book of Life. It is proper that such a Senator, representing such a State, should rail against free Kansas. But this is not all. The precedent is still more clinching. Thus far I have followed exclusively the public documents laid before Congress, and illustrated by the debates of that body; but well-authenticated facts, not of record here, make the case stronger still. It is sometimes said that the proceedings in Kansas are defective, because they originwh e wives of Prussia, their defenders am mothers ot our own R ated in a party. This is not true ; but even if it were true, Ho with — the levolution, who sent forth their sons, covered over with prayers and blessings, to combat fur of self-sacrihce truer than did Wo occasion. out of existence, Were the whole history of ; from its Very bethen would they still find support in the example of Michigan, where all the proceedings, stretching through successive years, began and ended in party. The proposed State Government whs pressed by the Democrats as test; all who did not embark in it were denounced. a party Of the Legislative Council, which called the first Constitutional Convention in 1836, all were Democrats; and in the Convention itself, composed of eighty-seven members, only seven were Whigs. The Convention of 1836, which gave the final assent, originated in a Democratic Convention on the 29th October, in the county of Wayne, composed of one hundred and twenty-four delegates, ail Democrats, who proceeded to resolve— “ That the delegates of the Democratic party of Wayne,
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