14 Upon this great sectional question all national men, I care not of what party—all true hearted patriots, who look from the bright history of the past with hopes to a brighter future before us, must and will give those principles, announced at Cincinnati, their sanction and approval. The issue on this subject.presented at Cincinnati is nationalism against sectionalism—the issue presented at Philadelphia is sectionalism against nationalism. Are we, Mr. Speaker, to remainaunited people? Are we to go on'in that high career of achievement in science, in art, and in civilization, which we have so conspicuously entered upon? Or are we t^be arrested in our upward course long before reaching the half-way poinf towards ultimate, culmination? Are our deeds of glory all numbered? Are the memories of the past to be forgotten, and the benefitsand blessings of the present to be derided and rejected ? Is the radiant orb of day brightening the morning of our existence to be darkened and obscured, and with it the light of the world extinguished forever? And all this because Congress, in its wisdom, has thoughtproper to permit the free white men of Kansas to determine for themselves whether the negro in that Territory shall be the same nondescript outcast, neither citizen nor slave,amongst them, that he is in sixteen States of the Union, or whether he shall occupy the same condition there in relation to them which a Christian philanthropy has assigned him in the other fifteen States. I say Christian philanthropy, notwithstanding the remarks of the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Dunn] and the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Giddings,] the other day, denouncing slavery as a violation of the laws of nature and of God! To those remarks, though my time is short, I wish very briefly to reply .before I close. Even, however, if slavery be sinful, as they affirm, or their language implies, permit me here to ask, is not the sin the same whether the slave be held in Georgia, Carolina, or in Kansas ? Is it any more sinful in one place than another? But are these gentlemen correct ? Is African slavery, as it exists in the-South, either a violation of the* laws of nature, the laws of nations, or the laws of God ? 1 maintain that it is not. It has been recognized by the laws of nations from time im-' memorial. The highest court inahis country, the Supreme Court of the United States, has so decided the laws of nations to be. And where do we get the laws of nature but in nature’s works about us? Those general rules and principles by which all things in nature, according to their kinds respectively, seem to be regulated, and to which they seem to conform, we call laws; and in the handiwork of creation nothing is more striking to the philosophic observer than that order is nature’s first great law. Gradation, too, is stamped upon everything animate as well as inanimate?—if, indeed, there be anything inanimate. A sdale, from the lowest degree of inferiority to the highest degree of superiority, rutis through all animal life. We see it in the insect tribes—we see it in the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, in the beasts of the ' earth, and we see it in the rades of men.. We see State, do I not offer you a fair, liberal, and just proposition for accomplishing that object? Do you wish to go before the country with the question, to inflame the public mind at the North, to move their passions, to stir up their blood, and prepare their hearts for a war of extermination against their southern brethren?—“ to drive them back, sword in hand, in case you fail in the election ?" If so, then be it so. But be it known*to you, that you will have to take the question with the issue this day joined. Between you and me—between these two propositions, I am willing that the people North, as well as the South, may judge. Nothing would afford me more pleasure than to argue the question with you before any intelligent constituency in the Republic. Patriotism, as I have heretofore found it, is the same everywhere. Nor has it in days past been confined to any locality in this broad land. It is, I believe^ indigenous wherever the national flag floats. * In the forests and ship-yards and market towns of Maine it is to be found; in the factories, workshops, and commercial houses of the old Bay State it is to be found. In State street and Faneuil Hall its voice has often been heard. So on the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont; on the hills and valleys of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It is a plant that heretofore has grown with as much vigor on the most sterile soil of the East.as it has upon the fairest plains of the South or the richest prairies of the West. I cannot believe that ai change of political climate has rendered it an! exotic in any part -bf this country yet. Upon ' nothing, however, should I rely in presenting thid issue everywhere, but upon the reason, justice, । intelligence, virtue, integrity, and patriotism of the people; upon these all our republican institutions must rest; when they fail, all that we hold dear must go with them. And if the North shall decide to follow General Webb, let the responsibility rgst upon him and them. I cannot believe that the great body of honest business people of the North are prepared to join a set of reckless leaders.jn this crusade against the South, or will lend their influence and aid in kindling a civil war in Kansas which may extend until it involves the whole country. This t cannot believe, and will not believe for the present at least. It is for them to determine whether । they will or not. That question they will have ! to meet, not only on this issue, if the majority of] this House so determine, but upon that o^icr, and at this time.more absorbing, issue of the Cincinnati platform. That platform bears no black flag, as this “sword-in-hand” general asserts. Black flags belong to those who think more o£ black men than they do of the white man, and who exhibitmore sympathy for the well-provided African race than they do for the suffering and I oppressed poor of their own. The flag of the J Cincinnati platform on this subject bears no principles ascribed upon its broad folds but those of the Constitution. T^he friends of the Union under the Constitution must and will approve them everywhere; while none but the enemies of one or the ortier of these, or both, can denounce thpni.
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