ambition-kindled national resentment-drawn forth national sympathies, and threatened to disturb the tranquillity of empires. He who, although He worketh unseen, yet worketh irresistibly and unceasingly, hath suspended neither His guardian care nor His paternal discipline over ourselves. Some of you have sickened and convalesced. Others have parted with cherished ones, who, removed before they had time to contract the stain of earth, were already prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven. There have been changes, too, among the unfortunate men whom I have defended. The sound of the hammer has died away in the workshops of some; the harvests have ripened and wasted in the fields of others. Want, and fear, and sorrow have entered into all their dwellings. Their own rugged forms have drooped; their sunburnt brows have blanched; and their hands have become as soft to the pressure of friendship as yours or mine. One of them--a vagrant boy-whom I found imprisoned here for a few extravagant words, that perhaps, he never uttered, has pined away and died. Another, he who was feared, hated and loved most of all, has fallen in the vigor of life, "hacked down, His thick summer leaves all faded." When such an one falls, amid the din and smoke of the battlefield, our emotions are overpowered-suppressed-lost in the excitement of public passion. But when he perishes a victim of domestic or social strife-when we see the iron enter his soul, and see it, day by day, sink deeper and deeper, until nature gives way, and he lies lifeless at our feet-then there is nothing to check the flow of forgiveness, compassion and sympathy. If, in the moment when he is closing his eyes on earth, he declares: "I have committed no crime against my country; I die a martyr for the liberty of speech and perish of a broken heart"-then, indeed do we feel that the tongues of dying men enforce attention, like deep harmony. Who would willingly consent to decide on the guilt or innocence of one who has thus been withdrawn from our erring judgment to the tribunal of eternal justice? Yet it cannot be avoided. If Abel F. Fitch was guilty of the crime charged in this indictment, every man here may nevertheless be innocent; but if he was innocent, then there is not one of these, his associates in life, who can be guilty. Try him, then, since you mustcondemn him, if you must-and with him condemn them. But remember that you are mortal, and he is now immortal; and that before the tribunal where he stands, you must stand and confront him, and vindicate your judgment. Remember, too, that he is now free. He has not only left behind him the dungeon, the cell and the chain; but he exults in a freedom, compared with which, the liberty we enjoy is slavery and bondage. You stand, then, between the dead and the living. There is no need to bespeak the exercise of your caution-of your candor-and of your impartiality. You will, I am sure, be just to the living, and true to your country; because, under circumstances so solemn-so full of awe -you cannot be unjust to the dead, nor false to your country, nor your God. Many vs. Treadwell, Invention 516 196 Of the Public Lands, Speech.... 156 Free to Settlers.. Law, the Higher.... M. In the Territories, Speech....... 51, 94 Madison, Jay, and Hamilton.... (See also Emancipation and Slavery.) ..... ... Violates the Ordinance of 1787... 71 Many vs. Treadwell, Argument. 90 516 284 18 409 MAYORS, ELECTION of by the People... 10 479 MEMOIR, For Index to, see page. Navy, Discipline in the. 186 xiii xei 1 328 285 370 New Bedford and the Whale Fisheries 252 .... 352 0. 90 O'Brien, Smith, Speech for... 119 130 ..99, 125 . 186 ..66, 74, 108, 130 Oceans, Arctic and Pacific, Survey of. 236 Hamburgh Steamers, Debate. Union, The Remarks on. .16, 81, 89 Scott, Winfield, Maj. Gen., Debate.... 334 Universal Freedom.. 37 85, 87, 107, 111, 119, 311 Sectional, Freedom National..... 71 Fugitive Law of 1793...... Of 1850. (See also Fugitive Slaves.) V. ..17, 30 Van Buren, John, and the Freeman 92 387 .410, 415, 472 Slaves, Number of in Dis. of Columbia 115 Van Zandt, Jones vs., Argument...... 476 SPEECHES IN THE SENATE OF NEW YORK The Militia Bill.. Election of Mayors by the People The Six Million Loan... SPEECHES IN THE SENATE OF U. STATES 10 Washington and Intervention. 1 War Steamers for Harbor Defence, Debate. 367 1 206, 210 Webster, Daniel, on Texas... 68 14 37 51 51 51 94 94 Emancipation in Dis. of Columbia 111 Wright, Silas, & the Freeman Case..410, 475 Freedom in District of Columbia. 111 Freedom in New Mexico..... 119 VOL. 1-35. Y. French Spoliations, Indemnities.. 132 Yulee, Senator, Contested Seat of..... 347 WHALE FISHERIES, THE, Speech. 236 And New Bedford... 252 Widow of Gen. Worth, Pension to.... 351 Wilmot Proviso Defended.........79, 102 |