12 i here given for Mr. O’Conor, three for Gov. Wise, -and three groans for John Brown.) I beg of you, gentlemen, all of you who are of my mind at least, to preserve silence, and leave the hissing animal in the full enjoyment of his natural privileges. {Cries of “ Good, good,” laughter and applause.) The first of our race that offended was taught to do so by that hissing animal. (Laughter and applause.) The first human society that was ever broken up through sin and discord, had its happy union dissolved by the entrance of that animal. (Applause.) Therefore, I say it is his privilege to hiss. Let him hiss on. (Cries of “ Good, good,” laughter and applause.) Gentlemen, I will not ^detain you much longer. (Cries of “ Go on, go on.”) I maintain that negro slavery is not unjust—(a voice—“ No, sir,” applause,) that it is benign in its influences upon the white man and upon the black. (Voices—“ That’s so, that’s so,” applause.) I maintain that it is ordained by nature ; that it is a necessity of both races; that, in -climates where the black race can live and prosper, nature herself enjoins correlative duties on the black man and on the white, which cannot be performed except by the preservation, and, if the hissing gentleman please, the perpetuation of negro slavery. I am fortified in this opinion by the highest tribunal in our country, that venerable exponent of our institutions, and of the principles of justice —the Supreme Court of the United States. That court has held, on this subject, what wise men will ever pronounce to be sound and just doctrine. There are some principles well known, well understood, universally recognized and universally acknowledged among men, that are not to be found written in constitutions or in laws. The people of the United States, at the formation of our Government, were, as they still are, in some sense, peculiar and radically distinguishable from other nations. We were white men, of—what is commonly called, by way of distinction—the Caucasian race. We were a monogamous people; that is to say, we were not Mohammedans, or followers •of Joe Smith—with half a dozen wives apiece. (Laughter.) It was a fundamental principle of ■our civilization that no State could exist or be tolerated in this Union which should not, in that respect, resemble all the other States of the Union. Some other distinctive features might be stated which serve to mark us as a people distinct from •others, and incapable of associating on terms of perfect political equality or social equality, as friends and fellow-citizens, with some kinds of people that are to be found upon the face of the earth. As a white nation, we made our Constitution and our laws, vesting all political rights in that race. They, and they alone, constituted, in every political sense, the American people. (Applause.) As to the negro, why, we allowed him to live under the shadow and protection of our laws. We gave him, as we were bound to give him, protection against wrong and outrage; but we denied to him political rights, or the power to govern. We left him, for so long a period as the community in which he dwelt should so order, in the condition of a bondman. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, to that condition the negro is assigned by nature. (Cries of “ Bravo ” and “ That’s so,” and applause.) Experience shows that his race cannot prosper—that they become extinct in any cold, or in any very temperate clime; but in the warm, the extremely warm regions, his race can be perpetuated, and with proper guardianship, may prosper. He has ample strength, and is competent to labor, but nature denies to him either the intellect to govern or the willinngess to work. (Applause.) Both were denied him. That same power which deprived him of the will to labor, gave him, in our country, as a recompense, a master to coerce that duty, and convert him into a useful and valuable servant. (Applause.) I maintain that it is not injustice to leave the negro in the condition in which nature placed him, and for which alone he is adapted. Fitted only for a state of pupilage, our slave system gives him a master to govern him and to supply his deficiencies: in this there is no injustice. Neither is it unjust in the master to compel him to labor, and thereby afford to that master a just compensation in return for the care and talent employed in governing him. In this way alone is the negro enabled to render himself useful to himself and to the society in which he is placed. These are the principles, gentlemen, which the extreme measures of abolitionism compel us to enforce. This is the ground that we must take, or abandon our cherished Union. We must no longer favor political leaders who talk about negro slavery being an evil; nor must we advance the indefensible doctrine that negro slavery is a thing which, although pernicious, is to be tolerated merely because we have made a bargain to tolerate it. We must turn away from the teachings of fanaticism. We must look at negro slavery as It is, remembering that the voice of inspiration, as found in the sacred volume, nowhere condemns the bondage of those who are fit only for bondage. Yielding to the clear decree of nature, and the dictates of sound philosophy, we must pronounce that institution just, benign, lawful and proper. The Constitution established by the fathers of our Republic, which recognized it, must be maintained. And that both may stand together, we must maintain that neither the institution itself, nor the Constitution which upholds it, is wicked or unjust; but that each is sound and wise, and entitled to our fullest support. We must visit with our execration any man claiming our suffrages, who objects to enforcing, with entire good faith, the provisions of the Constitution in favor of negro slavery, or who seeks, by any indirection, to withhold its protection from the South, or to get-away from its obligations upon the North. Let us henceforth support no man for public office whose speech or action tends to induce assaults upon the territory of our Southern neighbors, or to generate insurrection within their borders. (Loud applause.) These are the principles upon which we must act. This is what we must say to our brethren of the South. If we have sent men into Congress who are false to these views, and are seeking to violate the compact which binds us together, we must ask to be forgiven until we have another chance to mani
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