sometimes, perhaps, even by faction; but it is sure to be settled in a constitutional way, without any violent shock to society, or to any of its great interests. It is, moreover, sure to be settled rightly; because it will be settled under the benign influences of republicanism and Christianity, according to the principles of truth and justice, as ascertained by human reason. In pursuing such a course, it seems to me obviously as wise as it is necessary to save all existing laws and constitutions which are conservative of freedom, and to permit, as far as possible, the establishment of no new ones in favor of slavery; and thus to turn away the thoughts of the states which tolerate slavery from political efforts to perpetuate what in its nature cannot be perpetual, to the more wise and benign policy of emancipation.

This, in my humble judgment, is the simple, easy path of duty for the American statesman. I will not contemplate that other alternative-the greater ascendency of the slave power. I believe that if it ever shall come, the voice of freedom will cease to be heard in these halls, whatever may be the evils and dangers which slavery shall produce. I say this without disrespect for representatives of slave states, and I say it because the rights of petition and of debate on that subject are effectually suppressed-necessarily suppressedin all the slave states, and because they are not always held in reverence even now, in the two houses of congress. When freedom of speech on a subject of such vital interest shall have ceased to exist in congress, then I shall expect to see slavery not only luxuriating in all new territories, but stealthily creeping even into the free states themselves. Believing this, and believing, also, that complete responsibility of the government to the people is essential to public and private safety, and that decline and ruin are sure to follow, always, on the train of slavery, I am sure that this will be no longer a land of freedom and constitutional liberty when slavery shall have thus become paramount. Auferre, trucidare falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

I have always said that I should not despond, even if this fearful measure should be effected; nor do I now despond. Although, reasoning from my present convictions, I should not have voted for the compromise of 1820, I have labored, in the very spirit of those who established it, to save the landmark of freedom which it assigned. I have not spoken irreverently, even of the compromise

of 1850, which, as all men know, I opposed earnestly and with diligence. Nevertheless, I have always preferred the compromises of the constitution, and have wanted no others. I feared all others. This was a leading principle of the great statesman of the south [Mr. CALHOUN]. Said he:

"I see my way in the constitution; I cannot in a compromise. A compromise is but an act of congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no security. But the constitution is a statute. It is a rock on which we can stand, and on which we can meet our friends from the non-slaveholding states. It is a firm and stable ground, on which we can better stand in opposition to fanaticism than on the shifting sands of compromise. Let us be done with compromises. Let us go back and stand upon the constitution."

I stood upon this ground in 1850, defending freedom upon it as Mr. CALHOUN did in defending slavery. I was overruled then, and I have waited since without proposing to abrogate any compromises.

It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now; but the proposition has come from another quarter-from an adverse one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of compromise are passing from under my feet, and they are now, without agency of my own, taking hold again on the rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they do not remain firm. This seems to me auspicious of better days and wiser legislation. Through all the darkness and gloom of the present hour, bright stars are breaking, that inspire me with hope, and excite me to perseverance. They show that the day of compromises has passed forever, and that henceforward all great questions between freedom and slavery legitimately coming here—and none other can come-shall be decided, as they ought to be, upon their merits, by a fair exercise of legislative power, and not by bargains of equivocal prudence, if not of doubtful morality.

The house of representatives has, and it always will have, an increasing majority of members from the free states. On this occasion, that house has not been altogether faithless to the interests of the free states; for although it has taken away the charter of freedom from Kansas and Nebraska, it has at the same time told this proud body, in language which compels acquiescence, that in submitting the question of its restoration, it would submit it not merely to interested citizens, but to the alien inhabitants of the territories also. So the great interests of humanity are, after all, thanks to the

house of representatives, and thanks to God, submitted to the voice of human nature.

I see one more sign of hope. The great support of slavery in the south has been its alliance with the democratic party of the north. By means of that alliance it obtained paramount influence in this government about the year 1800, which, from that time to this, with but few and slight interruptions, it has maintained. While democracy in the north has thus been supporting slavery in the south, the people of the north have been learning more profoundly the principles of republicanism and of free government. It is an extraordinary circumstance, which you, sir, the present occupant of the chair [Mr. STUART], I am sure, will not gainsay, that at this moment, when there seems to be a more complete divergence of the federal government in favor of slavery than ever before, the sentiment of universal liberty is stronger in all free states than it ever was before. With that principle the present democratic party must now come into a closer contest. Their prestige of democracy is fast waning, by reason of the hard service which their alliance with their slaveholding brethren has imposed upon them. That party perseveres, as indeed it must, by reason of its very constitution, in that service, and thus comes into closer conflict with elements of true democracy, and for that reason is destined to lose, and is fast losing, the power which it has held so firmly and so long. That power will not be restored until the principle established here now shall be reversed, and a constitution shall be given, not only to Kansas and Nebraska, but also to every other national territory, which will be, not a tabula rasa, but a constitution securing equal, universal, and perpetuai freedom.

THE IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF KANSAS.'

TO OBTAIN empire is easy and common; to govern it well is difficult and rare indeed. I salute the congress of the United States in the exercise of its most important function, that of extending the federal constitution over added domains, and I salute especially the senate in the most august of all its manifold characters, itself a congress of thirty-one free, equal, sovereign states, assembled to decide

1 Speech in the United States Senate, April 9, 1856. See Memoir, ante, page 39.

whether the majestic and fraternal circle shall be opened to receive yet another free, equal and sovereign state.

The constitution prescribes only two qualificatious for new states, namely—a substantial civil community, and a republican government. Kansas has both of these.

The circumstances of Kansas, and her relations towards the Union, are peculiar, anomalous, and deeply interesting. The United States acquired the province of Louisiana (which included the present territory of Kansas) from France, in 1803, by a treaty, in which they agreed that its inhabitants should be incorporated into the Federal Union, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States. Nevertheless, Kansas was in 1820 assigned as a home for an indefinite period to several savage Indian tribes, and closed against immigration and all other than aboriginal civilization, but not without a cotemporaneous pledge to the American people and to mankind, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should be tolerated therein forever. In 1854, congress directed a removal of the Indian tribes, and organized and opened Kansas to civilization, but by the same act rescinded the pledge of perpetual dedication to freedom, and substituted for it another, which declared that the [future] people of Kansas should be left perfectly free to establish or to exclude slavery, as they should decide through the action of a republican government which congress modeled and authorized them to establish, under the protection of the United States. Notwithstanding this latter pledge, when the newly associated people of Kansas, in 1855, were proceeding with the machinery of popular elections, in the manner prescribed by congress, to choose legislative bodies for the purpose of organizing that republican government, armed bands of invaders from the state of Missouri entered the territory, seized the polls, overpowered or drove away the inhabitants, usurped the elective franchise, deposited false and spurious ballots without regard to regularity of qualification or of numbers, procured official certificates of the result by fraud and force, and thus created and constituted legislative bodies to act for and in the name of the people of the territory. These legislative bodies afterward assembled, assumed to be a legitimate legislature, set forth a code of municipal laws, created public offices and filled them with officers appointed for con

siderable periods by themselves, and thus established a complete and effective foreign tyranny over the people of the territory. These high-handed transactions were consummated with the expressed purpose of establishing African slavery as a permanent institution within the territory by force, in violation of the natural rights of the people solemnly guarantied to them by the congress of the United States. The president of the United States has been an accessory to these political transactions, with full complicity in regard to the purpose for which they were committed. He has adopted the usurpation, and made it his own, and he is now maintaining it with the military arm of the republic. Thus Kansas has been revolutionized, and she now lies subjugated and prostrated at the foot of the president of the United States, while he, through the agency of a foreign tyranny established within her borders, is forci bly introducing and establishing slavery there, in contempt and defiance of the organic law. These extraordinary transactions have been attended by civil commotions, in which property, life, and liberty, have been exposed to violence, and these commotions still continue to threaten, not only the territory itself, but also the adjacent states, with the calamities and disasters of civil war.

I am fully aware of the gravity of the charges against the president of the United States which this statement of the condition and relations of Kansas imports. I shall proceed, without fear and without reserve, to make them good. The maxim, that a sacred veil inust be drawn over the beginning of all governments, does not hold under our system. I shall first call the accuser into the presence of the senate-then examine the defenses which the president has made --and, last, submit the evidences by which he is convicted.

The people of Kansas know whether these charges are true or false. They have adopted them, and, on the ground of the high political necessity which the wrongs they have endured, and are yet enduring, and the dangers through which they have already passed, and the perils to which they are yet exposed, have created, they have provisionally organized themselves as a state, and that state is now here, by its two chosen senators and one representative, standing outside at the doors of congress, applying to be admitted into the Union, as a means of relief indispensable for the purposes of peace, freedom and safety. This new state is the president's responsible accuser.