Emerging from all the blackness of this Crime, where we seem to have
been lost, as in a savage wood, and turning our backs upon it, as upon
desolation and death, from which, while others have suffered, we have
escaped, I come now to THE APOLOGIES which the Crime has found. Sir,
well may you start at the suggestion, that such a series of wrongs,
so clearly proved by various testimony, so openly confessed by the
wrong-doers, and so widely recognized throughout the country, should
find apologists. But partisan spirit, now, as in other days, hesitates
at nothing. Great crimes of history have never been without apologies.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew, which you now instinctively condemn,
was at the time applauded in high quarters, and even commemorated by a
Papal medal, which may still be procured at Rome,--as the Crime against
Kansas, which is hardly less conspicuous in dreadful eminence, has been
shielded on this floor by extenuating words, and even by a Presidential
message, which, like the Papal medal, can never be forgotten in
considering the perversity of men.
Sir, the Crime cannot be denied. The President himself has admitted
“illegal and reprehensible” conduct. To such conclusion he was
compelled by irresistible evidence. But what he mildly describes I
openly denounce. Senators may affect to put it aside by sneer, or
to reason it away by figures, or to explain it by theory, such as
desperate invention has produced on this floor, that the Assassins and
Thugs of Missouri are in reality citizens of Kansas; but all these
efforts, so far as made, are only tokens of weakness, while to the
original Crime they add another offence of false testimony against
innocent and suffering men. But the Apologies for the Crime are worse
than the efforts at denial. In essential heartlessness they identify
their authors with the great iniquity.
They are four in number, and fourfold in character. The first is the
_Apology tyrannical_; the second, the _Apology imbecile_; the third,
the _Apology absurd_; and the fourth, the _Apology infamous_. This is
all. Tyranny, imbecility, absurdity, and infamy all unite to dance,
like the weird sisters, about this Crime.
* * * * *
The _Apology tyrannical_ is founded on the mistaken act of Governor
Reeder, in authenticating the Usurping Legislature, by which it is
asserted, that, whatever may have been the actual force or fraud in its
election, the people of Kansas are effectually concluded, and the whole
proceeding is placed under formal sanction of law. According to this
assumption, complaint is now in vain, and it only remains that Congress
should sit and hearken to it, without correcting the wrong, as the
ancient tyrant listened and granted no redress to the human moans that
issued from the heated brazen bull which subtile cruelty had devised.
This I call the Apology of technicality inspired by tyranny.
The facts on this head are few and plain. Governor Reeder, after
allowing only five days for objections to the returns,--a space of time
unreasonably brief in that extensive Territory,--declared a majority
of the members of the Council and of the House of Representatives
“duly elected,” withheld certificates from certain others, because of
satisfactory proof that they were not duly elected, and appointed a
day for new elections to supply these vacancies. Afterwards, by formal
message, he recognized the Legislature as a legal body, and when he
vetoed their act of adjournment to the neighborhood of Missouri, he did
it simply on the ground of illegality in such adjournment under the
organic law. Now to every assumption founded on these facts there are
two satisfactory replies: _first_, that no certificate of the Governor
can do more than authenticate a subsisting legal act, without of
itself infusing legality where the essence of legality is not already;
and, _secondly_, that violence or fraud, wherever disclosed, vitiates
completely every proceeding. In denying these principles, you place
the certificate above the thing certified, and give a perpetual lease
to violence and fraud, merely because at an ephemeral moment they are
unquestioned. This will not do.
Sir, I am no apologist for Governor Reeder. There is sad reason to
believe that he went to Kansas originally as tool of the President;
but his simple nature, nurtured in the atmosphere of Pennsylvania,
revolted at the service required, and he turned from his patron to
duty. Grievously did he err in yielding to the Legislature any act of
authentication; but in some measure he has answered for this error
by determined effort since to expose the utter illegality of that
body, which he now repudiates entirely. It was said of certain Roman
Emperors, who did infinite mischief in their beginnings and infinite
good towards their end, that they should never have been born or
never died; and I would apply the same to the official life of this
Kansas Governor. At all events, I dismiss the Apology founded on his
acts, as the utterance of Tyranny by the voice of Law, transcending
the declaration of the pedantic judge, in the British Parliament, on
the eve of our Revolution, that our fathers, notwithstanding their
complaints, were in reality represented in Parliament, inasmuch
as their lands, under the original charters, were held “in common
socage, as of the manor of East Greenwich in Kent,” which, being duly
represented, carried with it all the Colonies.[79] Thus in another age
has Tyranny assumed the voice of Law.
* * * * *
Next comes the _Apology imbecile_, which is founded on the alleged want
of power in the President to arrest this Crime. It is openly asserted,
that, under existing laws, the Chief Magistrate has no authority to
interfere in Kansas for this purpose. Such is the broad statement,
which, even if correct, furnishes no Apology for any proposed
ratification of the Crime, but which is in reality untrue; and this I
call the Apology of imbecility.
In other matters no such ostentatious imbecility appears. Only
lately, a vessel of war in the Pacific has chastised the cannibals of
the Feejee Islands for alleged outrage on American citizens. But no
person of ordinary intelligence will pretend that American citizens in
the Pacific have received wrongs from these cannibals comparable in
atrocity to those suffered by American citizens in Kansas. Ah, Sir, the
interests of Slavery are not touched by any chastisement of Feejees!
Constantly we are informed of efforts at New York, through the agency
of the Government, and sometimes only on the breath of suspicion,
to arrest vessels about to sail on foreign voyages in violation of
our neutrality laws or treaty stipulations. Now no man familiar with
the cases will presume to suggest that the urgency for these arrests
is equal to the urgency for interposition against these successive
invasions from Missouri. But the Slave Power is not disturbed by such
arrests in New York.
At this moment the President exults in the vigilance with which he
prevented the enlistment of a few soldiers, for transportation to
Halifax, in breach of our territorial sovereignty, and England is
bravely threatened, even to the extent of rupture of diplomatic
relations, for her endeavor, though unsuccessful, and at once
abandoned.[80] No man in his senses will urge that this act was
anything but trivial by the side of the Crime against Kansas. But the
Slave Power is not concerned in this controversy.
Thus, where the Slave Power is indifferent, the President will see
that the laws are faithfully executed; but in other cases, where
the interests of Slavery are at stake, he is controlled absolutely
by this tyranny, ready at all times to do, or not to do, precisely
as it dictates. Therefore it is that Kansas is left a prey to the
Propagandists of Slavery, while the whole Treasury, the Army, and Navy
of the United States are lavished to hunt a single slave through the
streets of Boston. You have not forgotten the latter instance; but I
choose to refresh it in your minds.
As long ago as 1851 the War Department and Navy Department concurred in
placing the forces of the United States near Boston at the command of
the Marshal, if needed for the enforcement of an Act of Congress which
is without support in the public conscience, as I believe it without
support in the Constitution; and thus these forces were degraded to
the loathsome work of slave-hunters. More than three years afterwards
an occasion arose for their intervention. A fugitive from Virginia,
who for some days had trod the streets of Boston as a freeman, was
seized as a slave. The whole community was aroused, while Bunker
Hill and Faneuil Hall quaked with responsive indignation. Then, Sir,
the President, anxious that no tittle of Slavery should suffer, was
curiously eager in the enforcement of the statute. The despatches
between him and his agents in Boston attest his zeal. Here are some of
them.
“BOSTON, May 27, 1854.
“_To the President of the United States._
“In consequence of an attack upon the Court House last night,
for the purpose of rescuing a fugitive slave under arrest,
and in which one of my own guards was killed, _I have availed
myself of the resources of the United States, placed under my
control by letter from the War and Navy Departments in 1851_,
and now have two companies of troops from Fort Independence
stationed in the Court House. Everything is now quiet. The
attack was repulsed by my own guard.
“WATSON FREEMAN.
“_United States Marshal, Boston, Mass._”
“WASHINGTON, May 27, 1854.
“_To_ WATSON FREEMAN, _United States Marshal, Boston, Mass._
“Your conduct is approved. The law must be executed.
“FRANKLIN PIERCE.”
“WASHINGTON, May 30, 1854.
“_To_ HON. B. F. HALLETT, _Boston, Mass._
“What is the state of the case of Burns?
“SIDNEY WEBSTER.
“_Private Secretary of the President._”
“WASHINGTON, May 31, 1854.
“_To_ B. F. HALLETT, _United States Attorney, Boston, Mass._
“Incur any expense deemed necessary by the Marshal and yourself
for City Military, or otherwise, to insure the execution of the
law.
“FRANKLIN PIERCE.”
The President was not content with the forces then on hand in the
neighborhood. Other posts also were put under requisition. Two
companies of national troops, stationed at New York, were kept
under arms, ready at any moment to proceed to Boston; and the
Adjutant-General of the Army was directed to repair to the scene, there
to superintend the execution of the statute. All this was done for
the sake of Slavery. But during long months of menace suspended over
the Free Soil of Kansas, breaking forth in successive invasions, the
President folds his hands in complete listlessness, or, if he moves at
all, it is only to encourage the robber propagandists.
And now the intelligence of the country is insulted by the Apology,
that the President had no power to interfere. Why, Sir, to make this
confession is to confess our Government a practical failure, which I
will never do,--except, indeed, as it is administered now. No, Sir, the
imbecility of the Chief Magistrate shall not be charged upon American
Institutions. Where there is a will, there is a way; and in his case,
had the will existed, there would have been a way, easy and triumphant,
to guard against the Crime we deplore. His powers are in every respect
ample; and this I prove by the statute-book. By the Act of Congress of
28th February, 1795, it is enacted, “that, whenever the laws of the
United States shall be opposed, _or the execution thereof obstructed_,
in any State, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the
ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in
the marshals by this Act, it shall be lawful for the President of the
United States to call forth the militia.”[81] By the supplementary Act
of 3d March, 1807, in all cases where he is authorized to call forth
the militia “for the purpose of causing the laws to be duly executed,”
the President is further empowered, in any State _or Territory_, “to
employ for the same purposes such part of the land or naval force of
the United States as shall be judged necessary.”[82] There is the
letter of the law; and you will please to mark the power conferred.
In no case, where _the laws of the United States_ are _opposed_, or
their execution _obstructed_, is the President constrained to wait
for the requisition of a Governor, or even the petition of a citizen.
Just so soon as he learns the fact, no matter by what channel, he is
invested by law with full power to counteract it. True it is, that,
when _the laws of a State_ are obstructed, he can interfere only on
the application of the Legislature of such State, or of the Executive,
when the Legislature cannot be convened; but when the National laws are
obstructed, no such preliminary application is necessary. It is his
high duty, under his oath of office, to see that they are executed,
and, if need be, by the National forces.
And, Sir, this is the precise exigency that arises in Kansas,--exactly
this,--nor more, nor less. The Act of Congress constituting the very
_organic law_ of the Territory, which, in peculiar phrase, as if to
avoid ambiguity, declares, as its “true intent and meaning,” that the
people thereof shall be left “perfectly free to form and regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way,” has been from the beginning
_opposed_ and _obstructed_ in its execution. If the President had
power to employ the national forces in Boston, when he supposed the
Fugitive Slave Bill was obstructed, and merely in anticipation of such
obstruction, it is absurd to say that he has not power in Kansas,
when, in the face of the whole country, the very _organic law_ of the
Territory is trampled under foot by successive invasions, and the
freedom of the people there overthrown. To assert ignorance of this
obstruction--premeditated, long-continued, and stretching through
months--attributes to him not merely imbecility, but idiocy. And thus
do I dispose of this Apology.
* * * * *
Next comes the _Apology absurd_, which is, indeed, in the nature of
pretext. It is alleged that a small printed pamphlet, containing the
“Constitution and Ritual of the Grand Encampment and Regiments of the
Kansas Legion,” was taken from the person of one George F. Warren, who
attempted to avoid detection by chewing it. The oaths and grandiose
titles of the pretended Legion are all set forth, and this poor mummery
of a secret society, which existed only on paper, is gravely introduced
on this floor, in order to extenuate the Crime against Kansas. It has
been paraded in more than one speech, and even stuffed into the report
of the Committee.
A part of the obligations assumed by the members of this Legion shows
why it is thus pursued, while also attesting its innocence. It is as
follows.
“I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this
order _who is not in favor of making Kansas a Free State_,
and whom I feel satisfied will exert his entire influence to
bring about this result. I will support, maintain, and abide
by any honorable movement made by the organization to secure
this great end, _which will not conflict with the laws of the
country and the Constitution of the United States_.”[83]
Kansas is to be made a Free State by an honorable movement which will
not conflict with the laws and the Constitution. That is the object
of the organization, declared in the very words of the initiatory
obligation. Where is the wrong in this? What is there here to cast
reproach, or even suspicion, upon the people of Kansas? Grant that the
Legion was constituted, can you extract from it any Apology for the
original Crime, or for its present ratification? Secret societies,
with extravagant oaths, are justly offensive; but who can find in this
mistaken machinery any excuse for the denial of all rights to the
people of Kansas? All this I say on the supposition that the society
is a reality, which it is not. Existing in the fantastic brains of
a few persons only, it never had any practical life. It was never
organized. The whole tale, with the mode of obtaining the copy of the
Constitution, is at once cock-and-bull story and mare’s nest,--trivial
as the former, absurd as the latter,--and to be dismissed, with the
Apology founded upon it, to the derision which triviality and absurdity
justly receive.
* * * * *
It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the _Apology
infamous_,--founded on false testimony against the Emigrant Aid
Company, and assumptions of duty more false than the testimony. Defying
truth and mocking decency, this Apology excels all others in futility
and audacity, while, from its utter hollowness, it proves the utter
impotence of the conspirators to defend their Crime. Falsehood, always
_infamous_, in this case arouses unwonted scorn. An association of
sincere benevolence, faithful to the Constitution and laws, whose
only fortifications are hotels, school-houses, and churches, whose
only weapons are saw-mills, tools, and books, whose mission is peace
and good-will, is grossly assailed on this floor, and an errand of
blameless virtue made the pretext for an unpardonable Crime. Nay,
more,--the innocent are sacrificed, and the guilty set at liberty. They
who seek to do the mission of the Saviour are scourged and crucified,
while the murderer, Barabbas, with the sympathy of the chief priests,
goes at large.
Were I to take counsel of my own feelings, I should dismiss this whole
Apology to the ineffable contempt which it deserves; but it is made to
play such a part in this conspiracy, that I feel it a duty to expose it
completely.
Sir, from the earliest times, men have recognized the advantages of
organization, as an effective agency in promoting the business of
life. Especially at this moment, there is no interest, public or
private, high or low, of charity or trade, of luxury or convenience,
which does not seek its aid. Men organize to rear churches and to make
pins,--to build schools and to sail ships,--to construct roads and to
manufacture toys,--to spin cotton and to print books,--to weave cloths
and to increase harvests,--to provide food and to distribute light,--to
influence Public Opinion and to secure votes,--to guard infancy
in its weakness, old age in its decrepitude, and womanhood in its
wretchedness; and now, in all large towns, when death has come, they
are buried by organized societies, and, emigrants to another world,[84]
they lie down in pleasant places, adorned by organized skill. To
complain that this prevailing principle has been applied to living
emigration is to complain of Providence and the irresistible tendencies
implanted in man.
This application of the principle is no recent invention, brought forth
for an existing emergency. It has the best stamp of Antiquity. It
showed itself in the brightest days of Greece, where colonists moved
in organized bands. It became part of the mature policy of Rome, where
bodies of men were constituted expressly for this purpose,--_triumviri
ad colonos deducendos_.[85] Naturally it is accepted in modern times
by every civilized state. With the sanction of Spain, an association
of Genoese merchants first introduced slaves to this continent. With
the sanction of France, the Society of Jesuits stretched their labors
over Canada and the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. It was under the
auspices of Emigrant Aid Companies that our country was originally
settled by the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, by the Adventurers of
Virginia, and by the philanthropic Oglethorpe, whose “benevolent soul,”
commemorated by Pope, sought to plant a Free State in Georgia. At this
day, such associations, of humbler character, are found in Europe, with
offices in the great capitals, through whose activity emigrants are
directed hither.
For a long time, emigration to the West, from the Northern and
Middle States, but particularly from New England, has been of marked
significance. In quest of better homes, annually it presses to the
unsettled lands, in numbers counted by tens of thousands; but this
has been done heretofore with little knowledge, and without guide
or counsel. Finally, when, by the establishment of a government in
Kansas, the tempting fields of that central region were opened to
the competition of peaceful colonization, and especially when it
was declared that the question of Freedom or Slavery there was to
be determined by the votes of actual settlers, then at once was
organization enlisted as an effective agency in quickening and
conducting the emigration impelled thither, and, more than all, in
providing homes on its arrival.
The Company was first constituted under an Act of the Legislature of
Massachusetts, April 26, 1854, some weeks prior to the passage of the
Nebraska Bill. The original act of incorporation was subsequently
abandoned, and a new charter received in February, 1855, in which the
objects of the Society are thus declared:--
“For the purposes of directing emigration westward, and _aiding
in providing accommodations for the emigrants after arriving at
their places of destination_.”[86]
At any other moment an association for these purposes would take
its place, by general consent, among philanthropic experiments; but
Crime is always suspicious, and shakes, like a sick man, merely at
the pointing of a finger. The conspirators against Freedom in Kansas
became alarmed at the movement. Their wicked plot was about to fail.
To help themselves, they denounced the Emigrant Aid Company; and their
denunciations, after finding an echo in the President, are repeated,
with much particularity, on this floor, in the formal report of your
Committee.
The falsehood of the whole accusation will appear in illustrative
instances.
A charter is set out, section by section, which, though originally
granted, was subsequently abandoned, and is not in reality the charter
of the Company, but is materially unlike it.
The Company is represented as “a powerful corporation, with a capital
of five millions,” when, by its actual charter, it is not allowed to
hold property above one million, and, in point of fact, its capital has
not exceeded one hundred thousand dollars.
Then, again, it is suggested, if not alleged, that this enormous
capital, which I have already said does not exist, is invested in
“cannon and rifles, in powder and lead,” and “implements of war,”
all of which, whether alleged or suggested, is absolutely false. The
officers of the Company authorize me to give this whole assumption a
point-blank denial.
These allegations are of small importance, and I mention them only
because they show the character of the report, and also something of
the quicksand on which the Senator from Illinois chooses to plant
himself. But these are all capped by the unblushing assertion, that the
proceedings of the Company were “in perversion of the plain provisions
of an Act of Congress,”--and also another unblushing assertion, as
“certain and undeniable,” that the Company was formed to promote
certain objects, “regardless of the rights and wishes of the people,
as guarantied by the Constitution of the United States, and secured by
their organic law,” when it is certain and undeniable that the Company
has done nothing in perversion of any Act of Congress, while, to the
extent of its power, it seeks to protect the rights and wishes of the
actual people in the Territory.
Sir, this Company has violated in no respect the Constitution or laws
of the land,--not in the merest letter or the slightest spirit. But
every other imputation is equally baseless. It is not true, as the
Senator from Illinois alleges, in order in some way to compromise the
Company, that it was informed before the public of the date fixed for
the election of the Legislature. This statement is pronounced by the
Secretary, in a letter now before me, “an unqualified falsehood, not
having even the shadow of a shade of truth for its basis.” It is not
true that men have been hired by the Company to go to Kansas; for every
emigrant going under its direction himself provides the means for
his journey. Of course, Sir, it is not true, as is complained by the
Senator from South Carolina, with that proclivity to error which marks
all his utterances, that men have been sent by the Company “with one
uniform gun, Sharp’s rifle”; for it has supplied no arms of any kind to
anybody. It is not true that the Company has encouraged any fanatical
aggression upon the people of Missouri; for it counsels order, peace,
forbearance. It is not true that the Company has chosen its emigrants
on account of political opinions; for it asks no questions with
regard to the opinions of any whom it aids, and at this moment stands
ready to forward those from the South as well as the North, while,
in the Territory, all, from whatever quarter, are admitted to equal
enjoyment of its tempting advantages. It is not true that the Company
has sent persons merely to control elections, and not to remain in the
Territory; for its whole action, and all its anticipation of pecuniary
profits, are founded on the hope of stocking the country with permanent
settlers, by whose labor the capital of the Company shall be made to
yield its increase, and by whose fixed interest in the soil the welfare
of all shall be promoted.
Sir, it has not the honor of being an Abolition Society, or of
numbering Abolitionists among its officers. Its President[87] is a
retired citizen, of ample means and charitable life, who has taken no
part in the conflicts with Slavery, and never allowed his sympathies
to be felt by Abolitionists. One of its Vice-Presidents is a gentleman
from Virginia,[88] with family and friends there, who has always
opposed the Abolitionists. Its generous Treasurer,[89] now justly
absorbed by the objects of the Company, has always been understood as
ranging with his extensive connections, by blood and marriage, on the
side of that quietism which submits to all the tyranny of the Slave
Power. Its Directors are more conspicuous for wealth and science than
for any activity against Slavery. Among these is an eminent lawyer of
Massachusetts, Mr. Chapman,[90]--personally known, doubtless, to some
who hear me,--who has distinguished himself by an austere conservatism,
too natural to the atmosphere of courts, which does not flinch even
from the support of the Fugitive Slave Bill. In a recent address at a
public meeting in Springfield, this gentleman thus speaks for himself
and his associates:--
“I have been a Director of the Society from the first, and
have kept myself well informed in regard to its proceedings.
I am not aware that any one in this community ever suspected
me of being an Abolitionist; but I have been accused of being
Proslavery, and I believe many good people think I am quite
too conservative on that subject. I take this occasion to
say that all the plans and proceedings of the Society have
met my approbation; and I assert that it has never done a
single act with which any political party or the people of any
section of the country can justly find fault. The name of its
President, Mr. Brown, of Providence, and of its Treasurer,
Mr. Lawrence, of Boston, are a sufficient guaranty, in the
estimation of intelligent men, against its being engaged in
any fanatical enterprise. Its stockholders are composed of
men of all political parties except Abolitionists. I am not
aware that it has received the patronage of that class of our
fellow-citizens, and I am informed that some of them disapprove
of its proceedings.”
The acts of the Company have been such as might be expected from
auspices thus severely careful at all points. The secret through which,
with small means, it has been able to accomplish so much is, that,
_as inducement to emigration, it goes forward and plants capital in
advance of population_. According to the old immethodical system, this
rule is reversed, and population is left to grope blindly, without the
advantage of fixed centres, with mills, schools, and churches,--all
calculated to soften the hardships of pioneer life,--such as are
established beforehand in Kansas. Here, Sir, is the secret of
the Emigrant Aid Company. By this single principle, which is now
practically applied for the first time in history, and which has the
simplicity of genius, a business association at a distance, without
large capital, has become the beneficent instrument of civilization,
exercising the functions of various societies, and being in itself
Missionary Society, Bible Society, Tract Society, Education Society,
and Society for the Diffusion of the Mechanic Arts. I would not claim
too much for this Company; but I doubt if at this moment there is any
society so completely philanthropic; and since its leading idea, like
the light of a candle from which other candles are lighted without
number, may be applied indefinitely, it promises to be an important
aid to Human Progress. The lesson it teaches cannot be forgotten;
and hereafter, wherever unsettled lands exist, intelligent capital
will lead the way, anticipating the wants of the pioneer,--nay, doing
the very work of the original pioneer,--while, amidst well-arranged
harmonies, a new community arises, to become, by example, a more
eloquent preacher than any solitary missionary. In subordination to
this essential idea is its humbler machinery for the aid of emigrants
on their way, by combining parties, so that friends and neighbors
journey together,--by purchasing tickets at wholesale, and furnishing
them to individuals at actual cost,--by providing for each party a
conductor familiar with the road, and, through these simple means,
promoting the economy, safety, and comfort of the expedition. The
number of emigrants it has directly aided, even thus slightly, in
their journey, is infinitely exaggerated. From the beginning of its
operations down to the close of the last autumn, all its detachments
from Massachusetts contained only thirteen hundred and twelve persons.
Such is the simple tale of the Emigrant Aid Company. Sir, not even
suspicion can justly touch it. But it must be made a scapegoat. This
is the decree which has gone forth. I was hardly surprised at this
outrage, when it proceeded from the President, for, like Macbeth, he is
“stepped in so far,” that “returning were as tedious as go o’er”; but
I did not expect it from the Senator from Missouri [Mr. GEYER], whom I
have learned to respect for the general moderation of his views, and
the name he has won in an honorable profession. Listening to him, I was
saddened by the spectacle of the extent to which Slavery will sway a
candid mind to do injustice. Were any other interest in question, that
Senator would scorn to join in impeachment of such an association. His
instincts, as lawyer, as man of honor, and as Senator, would forbid;
but the Slave Power, in enforcing its behests, allows no hesitation,
and the Senator surrenders.
In this vindication I content myself with a statement of facts,
rather than an argument. It might be urged that Missouri organized a
propagandist emigration long before any from Massachusetts, and you
might be reminded of the wolf in the fable, which complained of the
lamb for disturbing the waters, when in fact the alleged offender was
lower down the stream. It might be urged also that South Carolina
lately entered upon a similar system,--while one of her chieftains, in
rallying recruits, has unconsciously attested the cause in which he was
engaged, by exclaiming, in the words of Satan, addressed to his wicked
forces,--
“Awake! arise! or be forever fallen!”[91]
But the occasion needs no such defences. I put them aside. Not on the
example of Missouri or the example of South Carolina, but on inherent
rights, which no man, whether Senator or President, can justly assail,
do I plant this impregnable justification. It will not do, in specious
phrase, to allege the right of every State to be free in domestic
policy from foreign interference, and then to assume such wrongful
interference by this Company. By the law and Constitution we stand or
fall; and that law and Constitution we have in no respect offended.
To cloak the overthrow of all law in Kansas, an assumption is now
set up which utterly denies one of the plainest rights of the
people everywhere. Sir, I beg Senators to understand that this is a
government of laws, and that, under these laws, the people have an
incontestable right to settle any portion of our broad territory,
and, if they choose, to propagate any opinions there not forbidden by
the laws. If this be not so, pray, Sir, by what title is the Senator
from Illinois, who is an emigrant from Vermont,[92] propagating his
disastrous opinions in another State? Surely he has no monopoly of
this right. Others may do what he is doing; nor can the right be in
any way restricted. It is as broad as the people; nor does it matter
whether they go in numbers small or great, with assistance or without
assistance, under the auspices of societies or not under such auspices.
If this be not so, then by what title are so many foreigners annually
naturalized, under Democratic auspices, in order to secure votes for
misnamed Democratic principles? And if capital as well as combination
cannot be employed, by what title do venerable associations exist, of
ampler means and longer duration than any Emigrant Aid Company, around
which cluster the regard and confidence of the country,--the Tract
Society, a powerful corporation, which scatters its publications freely
in every corner of the land,--the Bible Society, an incorporated body,
with large resources, which seeks to carry the Book of Life alike into
Territories and States,--the Missionary Society, also an incorporated
body, with large resources, which sends its agents everywhere, at home
and in foreign lands? By what title do all these exist? Nay, Sir, by
what title does an Insurance Company in New York send its agent to open
an office in New Orleans? and by what title does Massachusetts capital
contribute to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri, and
also to the copper mines of Michigan? The Senator inveighs against
the Native American party; but his own principle is narrower than any
attributed to them. They object to the influence of emigrants from
abroad: he objects to the influence of American citizens at home, when
exerted in States or Territories where they were not born. The whole
assumption is too audacious for respectful argument. But since a great
right is denied, the children of the Free States, over whose cradles
has shone the North Star, owe it to themselves, to their ancestors, and
to Freedom itself, that this right shall now be asserted to the fullest
extent. By the blessing of God, and under the continued protection of
the laws, they will go to Kansas, there to plant homes, in the hope of
elevating this Territory soon into the sisterhood of Free States; and
to such end they will not hesitate in the employment of all legitimate
means, whether by companies of men or contributions of money, to swell
a virtuous emigration, and they will justly scout any attempt to
question this unquestionable right. Sir, if they fail to do this, they
will be fit only for slaves themselves.
God be praised, Massachusetts, honored Commonwealth, that gives me the
privilege to plead for Kansas on this floor, knows her rights, and
will maintain them firmly to the end. This is not the first time in
history that her public acts have been impeached and her public men
exposed to contumely. Thus was it in the olden time, when she began
the great battle whose fruits you all enjoy. But never yet has she
occupied a position so lofty as at this hour. By the intelligence of
her population, by the resources of her industry, by her commerce,
cleaving every wave, by her manufactures, various as human skill,
by her institutions of education, various as human knowledge, by
her institutions of benevolence, various as human suffering, by the
pages of her scholars and historians, by the voices of her poets and
orators, she is now exerting an influence more subtile and commanding
than ever before,--shooting her far-darting rays wherever ignorance,
wretchedness, or wrong prevails, and flashing light even upon those
who travel far to persecute her. Such is Massachusetts; and I am proud
to believe that you may as well attempt with puny arm to topple down
the earth-rooted, heaven-kissing granite which crowns the historic sod
of Bunker Hill as to change her fixed resolve for Freedom everywhere,
and especially now for Freedom in Kansas. I exult, too, that in this
battle, which in moral grandeur surpasses far the whole war of the
Revolution, she is able to preserve her just eminence. To the first she
contributed troops in larger numbers than any other State, and larger
than all the Slave States together; and now to the second, which is
not of contending armies, but of contending opinions, on whose issue
hangs trembling the advancing civilization of the age, she contributes,
through the manifold and endless intellectual activity of her children,
more of that divine spark by which opinions are quickened into life
than is contributed by any other State, or by all the Slave States
together, while her annual productive industry exceeds in value three
times the whole vaunted cotton crop of the whole South.
Sir, to men on earth it belongs only to deserve success, not to secure
it; and I know not how soon the efforts of Massachusetts will wear the
crown of triumph. But it cannot be that she acts wrong for herself
or her children, when in this cause she encounters reproach. No: by
the generous souls once exposed at Lexington,--by those who stood
arrayed at Bunker Hill,--by the many from her bosom who, on all the
fields of the first great struggle, lent their vigorous arms to the
cause of all,--by the children she has borne, whose names alone are
national trophies, is Massachusetts now vowed irrevocably to this work.
What belongs to the faithful servant she will do in all things, and
Providence shall determine the result.[93]
And here ends what I have to say of the four Apologies for the Crime
against Kansas.[94]