high prerogative. Our fathers, on the eve of the Revolution, set forth in burning words, among their grievances, that George III. 'in order to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, had prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce.' Sir, like the English monarch, you may now prostitute your power to this same purpose. But you cannot escape the judgment of the world, nor the doom of history.

"It will be in vain, that, while doing this thing, you plead, in apology, the principle of self-government, which you profess to recognize in the Territories. Sir, this very principle, when truly administered, secures equal rights to all, without distinction of color or race, and makes Slavery impossible. By no rule of justice, and by no subtlety of political metaphysics, can the right to hold a fellow-man in bondage be regarded as essential to self-government. The inconsistency is too flagrant. It is apparent on the bare statement. It is like saying two and two make three. In the name of Liberty you open the door to Slavery. With professions of Equal Rights on the lips, you trample on the rights of Human Nature. With a kiss upon the brow of that fair Territory, you betray it to wretchedness and shame. Well did the

patriot soul exclaim, in bitter words, wrung out by bitter experience: 'O Liberty! what crimes are done in thy name!'

"In vain, sir, you will plead, that this measure proceeds from the North, as has been suggested by the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Dixon]. Even if this were true, it would be no apology. But, precipitated as this Bill has been upon the Senate, at a moment of general calm, and in the absence of any controlling exigency, and then hurried to a vote in advance of the public voice, as if fearful of arrest, it cannot justly be called the offspring of any popular sentiment. In this respect it differs widely from the Missouri Prohibition, which, after solemn debate, extending through two sessions of Congress, and ample discussion before the people, was adopted. Certainly there is, as yet, no evidence that this attempt, though espoused by Northern politicians, proceeds from that Northern sentiment which throbs and glows, strong and fresh, in the schools, the churches, and homes of the people. Populi omnes AD AQUILONEM positi Libertatem quandam spirant. And could the abomination which you seek to perpetrate be now submitted to the awakened millions whose souls have been truly ripened under Northern skies, it would be flouted at once with indignant and undying scorn.

"But the race of men, 'white slaves of the North,' described and despised by a Southern statesman, is not yet extinct there, sir. It is one of the melancholy tokens of the power of Slavery, under our political system, and especially through the operations of the National Government, that it loosens and destroys the character of Northern men, exerting even its subtle influence at a distance-like the black magnetic mountain in the Arabian story, under whose irresistible attraction the iron bolts, which held together the strong timbers of a stately ship, securely floating on the distant wave, were drawn out, till the whole fell apart, and became a disjointed wreck. Alas! too often those principles, which give consistency, individuality, and form to the Northern character, which render it staunch, strong, and seaworthy, which bind it together as with iron, are sucked out, one by one, like the bolts of the ill-fated vessel, and from the miserable, loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly-a Northern man with Southern principles. Sir-No such man can speak for the North."

[Here there was an interruption of prolonged applause in the galleries.]

Mr. Sumner made the final protest for himself, and the clergy of New England, against slavery in Nebraska and Kansas, on the night of the pas

sage of the Nebraska and Kansas Bill, May 25th, 1854. In his speech on that occasion he said, with much force and seriousness:

"Mr. President :-It is now midnight. At this late hour of a session drawn out to an unaccustomed length, I shall not fatigue the Senate by argument. There is a time for all things, and the time for this has passed. The determination of the majority is fixed; but it is not more fixed than mine. The Bill which they sustain, I oppose. On a former occasion I met it by argument, which, though often attacked in debate, still stands unanswered and unanswerable. At present, I am admonished that I must be content with a few words of earnest protest against the consummation of a great wrong. Duty to myself, and also to the honored Commonwealth, of which I find myself the sole representative in this immediate exigency, will not allow me to do less."

* * *

"In passing this Bill, as is now threatened, you scatter, from this dark midnight hour, no seeds of harmony and good-will, but broadcast through the land, dragon's teeth, which haply may not spring up in direful crops of armed men, but yet, I am assured, sir, will they fructify in civil strife and feud.

"From the depths of my soul, as a loyal citizen and as a Senator, I plead, remonstrate, protest,

CALIFO

against the passage of this Bill. I struggle against it as against death; but, as in death itself, corruption puts on incorruption, and this mortal body puts on immortality, so from the sting of this hour I find assurances of that triumph by which Freedom will be restored to her immortal birthright in the Republic.

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Sir, the Bill which you are now about to pass, is at once the worst and the best Bill on which Congress ever acted. Yes, sir, WORST and BEST at the same time.

"It is the worst Bill, inasmuch as it is a present victory of Slavery. In a Christian land, and in an age of civilization, a time-honored statute of Freedom is struck down, opening the way to all the countless woes and wrongs of human bondage. Among the crimes of history, another is about to be recorded, which no tears can blot out, and which, in better days, will be read with universal shame. Do not start. The Tea Tax and Stamp Act, which aroused the patriot rage of our fathers, were virtues by the side of your transgression; nor would it be easy to imagine at this day, any measure which more openly and perversely defied every sentiment of justice, humanity, and Christianity. Am I not right, then, in calling it the worst Bill on which Congress ever acted?

"But there is another side to which I gladly