is body for the abuse of this right, gentlemen seemed to wonder that
the Senate had no power to prevent the action of one of its members in
cases like this, and the poor privilege of having the resolution
printed, by order of the Senate, was denied.

Let the Senator from South Carolina before me remember that, at the
last session, when he offered resolutions on the subject of slavery,
they were not only received without objection, but printed, voted on,
and decided; and let the Senator from Kentucky reflect, that the
petition which he offered against our right, was also received and
ordered to be printed without a single dissenting voice; and I call on
the Senate and the country to remember, that the resolutions which I
have offered on the same subject have not only been refused the
printing, but have been laid on the table without being debated, or
referred. Posterity, which shall read the proceedings of this time,
may well wonder what power could induce the Senate of the United
States to proceed in such a strange and contradictory manner. Permit
me to tell the country now what this power behind the throne, greater
than the throne itself, is. It is the power of SLAVERY. It is a power,
according to the calculation of the Senator from Kentucky, which owns
twelve hundred millions of dollars in human beings as property; and if
money is power, this power is not to be conceived or calculated; a
power which claims human property more than double the amount which
the whole money of the world could purchase. What can stand before
this power? Truth, everlasting truth, will yet overthrow it. This
power is aiming to govern the country, its constitutions and laws; but
it is not certain of success, tremendous as it is, without foreign or
other aid. Let it be borne in mind that the Bank power, some years
since, during what has been called the panic session, had influence
sufficient in this body, and upon this floor, to prevent the reception
of petitions against the action of the Senate on their resolutions of
censure against the President. The country took instant alarm, and the
political complexion of this body was changed as soon as possible. The
same power, though double in means and in strength, is now doing the
same thing. This is the array of power that even now is attempting
such an unwarrantable course in this country; and the people are also
now moving against the slave, as they formerly did against the Bank
power. It, too,