ern sisters in her practical sympathy for the heathen without her gates.

Mr. Hooker, of course, would brand" Uncle Tom's Cabin " unutterably wicked. It must be the enemy of souls. It is an infidel book, because it stabs Christianity to the heart by destroying its chosen missionary weapon. In writing it Mrs. Stowe must have been given over to hardness of heart, and wholly taken captive by the devil; for her book is altogether wanting in that real, missionary," evangelical" unction, in which Mr. Hooker's labors seem to have been baptized. His theory likewise elucidates the principle upon which the Free Democratic members of the United States Senate must have been excluded from its business committees. Senator Jesse D. Bright, whose fervent desire for the salvation of souls it would, perhaps, be impious to question, publicly pronounced these Senators "outside of any healthy political organization." This, no doubt, was prompted by the godly yearning of his soul for the conversion of the African heathen. He himself, I believe, is rearing and converting quite a number on his Kentucky plantation. He was therefore interested both as a saint and a sinner in the grand missionary institution. Hale, and Chase, and Sumner, did not believe in missions. They lacked faith in "the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of slavery," as a divine scheme for converting the heathen world. And although no man could say aught in derogation of their talents, their patriotism, or the purity of their lives, yet as they did not believe in the propagation of the gospel according to St. Jesse, they were unorthodox outsiders, and must be excommunicated as unclean! Who that knows anything of our distinguished Senator could ever have comprehended this without the pious solution of Mr. Hooker? Let us profoundly thank him both for his piety and his logic; and let us thank all the foes of freedom for the glaring sophisms to which they have been compelled to resort by the blows we have dealt.

My friends, I must not detain you longer. Were it right to do so, I could refer to many other facts prophetic of the triumph of our cause. Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, the idolized leaders of the great hosts of slavery, have all gone to their reckoning. The mad and mercenary cry of "danger to the Union" has been shamed into silence by the sober second thought of the people. The multitudinous heaps of "lower law" sermons, scattered through the land two or three years ago by atheistical doctors of divinity, have gone down to a grave of infamy from which there

can be no resurrection. And our Fugitive Slave Act itself, with all its villainy, not only has the credit of giving birth to "Uncle Tom," but of extending and vitalizing a great system of subterranean railroads, all the lines of which are now striking larger dividends than at any time since the formation of the government. In view of such facts, upon which I cannot now enlarge, and of the glorious future toward which they are hastening us, suffer me to exhort you to courage, constancy, and an unfaltering faith. Let us remember that the beautiful horizon of light which now salutes our vision has been educed from a season of darkness and gloom; and whilst we feel encouraged by our progress thus far, by the justice of our cause, and by the smiles of our Maker, let us consecrate ourselves anew to the great service which lies before us.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN ITS PRESENT RELATIONS TO AMERICAN POLITICS.

DELIVERED AT INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 29, 1855.

[The final disruption of the Whig party, followed by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the simultaneous birth of Know Nothingism, inaugurated a strange political dispensation with which the speech here reprinted deals unsparingly. It appeared at the time in the "National Era," and "Facts for the People," and was addressed especially to the anti-slavery men of Indiana, whose policy it rebuked; but its fearless arraignment of the Know Nothing movement, and of the slippery tactics of the "Anti-Nebraska" leaders, gave still further and more general offense. The madness of the times, however, soon passed away, and the speech is now submitted as its own best vindication.]

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, I confess to some degree of embarrassment in approaching the discussion of the slavery question at this crisis in its history. It has assumed an attitude so novel and peculiar in its relations to American politics, and is so complicated with strange and alien elements, that I can scarcely hope to present my views of present duty without giving offense to some, and perhaps arousing a certain antagonism among those who have heretofore walked together as brethren. My task is a delicate one, and I regret, sincerely, the causes that have made it so. I shall, however, in the exercise of free speech, and with that plainness which I am accustomed to employ, give utterance to my own deliberate convictions, holding no man or party responsible for them, and only asking, in their behalf, such consideration as they may be entitled to receive at your hands. I desire to address myself, to-day, to anti-slavery men; and I begin by remarking that the grand obstacle to the spread of free principles is the lack of a just comprehension of our movement. It is not only grossly misconceived by the great body of the people, but many, I fear, who are set apart by common consent as its peculiar friends, either do not understand, or perceive but dimly, its real magnitude. The cause of Human Rights is not one to be dragged down to the level of our current politics, and confounded with the strife of parties and the schemes of place-hunters. It is not to be hawked about in the political market, and advocated with a zeal

which instantly expires when the temporary occasion of it has disappeared. We dishonor the cause, and bring our own integrity into question, when we suffer it to be placed alongside the comparatively trifling and ephemeral questions of the day, and to be dealt with as such, instead of elevating it to the dignity of a great moral enterprise, to be steadily prosecuted, whether honor, advantage, and immediate success, on the one hand, or obloquy, suffering, and present defeat, on the other, shall be the result of our fidelity. The question of human freedom is not a question of one nation, or one race, but of all nations and all races. Ours is preeminently a Christian movement. Its grand idea, its central, life-giving principle, is the equal brotherhood of all men before their common Father in heaven; and its mission is the practical vindication of this truth. We are to make it the animating spirit of the religion, the morality, and the politics of this nation. We are to rescue the doctrine of a common brotherhood from the limbo of unmeaning abstractions, and make it incarnate in the popular heart. "One God, one humanity, one love from all for all," - this is the platform of the abolitionist, and this is the platform of the Christian. The work we are striving to accomplish, therefore, coincides with Christianity itself. The obstacles which oppose the liberation of three and a half millions of American slaves, are the obstacles which oppose every enterprise looking to the reign of "peace on earth and good-will to men." Contempt for humanity is the foundation of slavery, and of every species of oppression and wrong; respect for humanity is the foundation of freedom, and the grand condition of the world's advancement. Abrogate the infidel law of Hate, which regards man as a child of the devil, and enthrone in its stead the Christian law of Love, which reverences him as the child and moral likeness of his Maker, and not only will the chains of the slave fall asunder, but the curses of land monopoly, the cruel exactions of capital over labor, the cold-blooded rapacity of avarice, and every other form of "man's inhumanity to man," will be sent howling from the face of the earth.

Here, Mr. Chairman, on the great rock of Christianity, and on no narrower or frailer foundation, should we erect the altar of freedom, and offer our sacrifices. This is the only true stand-point for the anti-slavery party in the United States, and we should resolutely and unitedly maintain it, in the face of all opposition. Principle and policy alike require that we stand on Christian ground, and on no account should we forego a position which alone can render our cause impregnable, and which is so much needed to cheer us under

the many discouragements to which it is perpetually subjected. We are branded as infidels. Let us say to the world that we wage war against slavery because we are Christians, and that to us rightfully belongs the prerogative of sitting in judgment upon the popular religion of the country, and pronouncing upon it according to its fidelity or its infidelity to the great doctrine of human brotherhood. We are upbraided with having but "one idea." Let us reply, that we borrow it from the New Testament, in which we find it appealing to us as the "one idea" of the founder of our religion, and that that idea is large enough to comprehend the moral universe. We are charged with an undue measure of zeal in the advocacy of our cause. Let us answer, that the system of American slavery is the hugest and most frightful denial of the central truth of our religious faith, the most atrocious libel upon justice and humanity, that now confronts Heaven on any part of our globe. We are reproached with our weakness as a party, and sometimes our own doubting hearts whisper to us that our struggles have proved but so many failures. Let us remember, that so holy an enterprise must necessarily encounter every form of human selfishness, and be subject to those conditions by which every other good work has been retarded; that, in the nature of things, it can only keep pace with the gradual but slow progress of Christian principles in the community; and while we thus learn a lesson of patience, let us ever bear in mind that Heaven itself is pledged to the ultimate success of our sincere endeavors.

That our movement is not understood, not uniformly referred to the grand principle which underlies it, seems quite evident, from the want of any deep and pervading conviction of the wrongfulness of slavery among the people of the free States. Our abhorrence of the institution is from the lips, and not from the heart. We do not hate it with an earnest and robust hatred, that goes out into deeds, but with a sickly and superficial aversion that yields no result, unless it be to debauch the conscience. We hate the negro

with a practical vengeance. It is no counterfeit, no mere disguise, but a blighting, scathing, ever-present hatred, under which the colored race withers and is consumed in our midst. Ask the people of Indiana if they hate slavery, and they will point you to their Constitution and laws forbidding colored men from coming into the State, denying those who are in the right of suffrage, taxing them to support the government whilst refusing them any share in the school fund, forbidding them to testify in our courts, and even questioning their right to travel on our railways. Ask the people of