SENATE CHAMBER, May 29, 1854.
Gentlemen,--For the present my post of duty is here, so that I must
forego the pleasure of meeting our friends on Wednesday next. The
Massachusetts host, I am glad to learn, will be reinforced on that
occasion by brave voices from other States. Mr. Giddings you will
be glad to welcome.
Could I meet my fellow-citizens, I should not lose the opportunity
of sounding the alarm and exhorting them to action. The Nebraska
Bill has passed, but it is a mistake to suppose that the
propagandists of Slavery will stop here. Other audacities are
at hand. More land from Mexico is sought, on which to extend
a nefarious institution. The calamities of war with Spain,
incalculably disastrous to the commerce of New York and Boston,
are all to be braved in order to appropriate slaveholding Cuba. An
intrigue is now pending to secure a foothold in Hayti; and even the
distant valley of the Amazon is embraced in these gigantic schemes,
by which the despotism of the Slave Power is to be established,
while you and I, and all of us from the North, are to bow down
before it. For myself, I will not bow down; but, Gentlemen, you
will understand that no individual can effectually oppose these
schemes.
This can be done only in one way. As all at the South, without
distinction of party, unite for Slavery, so all at the North,
without distinction of party, forgetting vain differences of Whig
and Democrat, must unite for Freedom, and, rising in majority and
might, take control of the National Government. For this work
the people are now ready; and they can surely accomplish it, if
they will. The only impediment, at this moment, is to be found in
those blind or selfish politicians who perversely seek a triumph
of mere party, instead of a triumph of Freedom. Neither the Whig
party nor the Democratic party, through its national organization
dependent on slaveholding wings, is competent to the exigency. The
slaveholding wings can be kept in concert with the Northern wings
only when they give the law to the movement. For a poor triumph
of party, the North yields, in advance, all that is dear to it,
and, while vainly calling itself _national_, helps to instal the
_sectional_ power of Slavery in the National Government. This must
be changed.
With an earnest soul, devoted to the triumph of the righteous
cause, and indifferent to the name by which I may be called, I
would say to all at this time, Abandon old party ties; forget old
party names; let by-gones be by-gones; and for the sake of Liberty,
and to secure the general welfare, now unite against the Despotism
of Slavery, and in this union let past differences disappear.
Believe me, Gentlemen,
Very faithfully yours,