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
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