MR. PRESIDENT,--I begin by expressing my acknowledgments to the Senator
from Maine, who yields the floor to-day, and also my sincere regret
that anything should interfere with the opening of this debate by him.
It is his right, and I enter upon it now only by his indulgence.
I am not insensible to the responsibility assumed in setting myself
against a proposition already adopted in the other House, and having
the recommendation of a Committee to which the country looks with
such just expectation, and to which, let me say, I look with so much
trust. But, after careful reflection, I do not feel that I can do
otherwise. Knowing, as I do, the eminent character of the Committee,
its intelligence, its patriotism, and the moral instincts by which it
is moved, I am at a loss to understand the origin of an attempt which
seems to me nothing else than another compromise of Human Rights, as
if the country had not already paid enough in costly treasure and more
costly blood for such compromises in the past. I had hoped the day of
compromise with wrong had gone forever. Ample experience shows that
it is the least practical mode of settling questions involving moral
principle. A moral principle cannot be compromised.