gly seam in your faces. Slavery is Plaintiff in this case; Freedom
Defendant. Before you as Judges, I plead your own cause--for you as
defendant. I will not insult you by the belief or the fear that you
can do other than right, in a matter where the law is so plain, and
the Justice clear as noonday light. But should you decide as the
wicked wish, as the court longs to instruct you, you doom your mouths
to silence; you bow your manly faces to the ground, destine your
memories to shame, and your children to bondage worse than negro
slavery.

* * * * *

Such, Gentlemen of the Jury, is the state of affairs leading to this
Prosecution--such the past, present, and prospective Encroachments of
a Power hostile to Democratic Institutions and the unalienable Rights
they were designed to protect. Such also are the two Measures now in
contemplation,--the Extension of African Bondage, and the Destruction
of American Freedom.

II. LOOK NEXT AT THE MODE OF OPERATION HITHERTO PURSUED BY THIS
ENCROACHING POWER, IN OTHER TIMES AND NATIONS, AND IN OUR OWN,
SYSTEMATIC CORRUPTION OF THE JUDICIARY.

Here I shall show the process by which that Principle of Slavery
becomes a Measure of political ruin to the People.

In substance Despotism is always the same, Spanish or Carolinian, but
the form varies to suit the ethnologic nature and historical customs
of different people. I shall mention two forms--one to illustrate, the
other to warn.

(I.) The open Assumption of Power by military violence. This method is
followed in countries where love of Individual Liberty is not much
developed in the consciousness of the people, and where democratic
institutions are not fixed facts in their history; where the nation is
not accustomed to local self-government, but wonted to a strong
central power directed by a single will. This form prevails in Russia,
Turkey, and among all the Romanic tribes in Europe, and their
descendants in America. Military usurpation, military rule is
indigenous in France,--where two Napoleons succeed thereby,--in Italy,
in Spain, and most eminently in Spanish America. But no people of the
Teutonic family for any length of time ever tolerated a usurping
soldier at the head of affairs, or submitted to martial arbitrary
rule, or military violence in the chief magistrate. It is against our
habit and disposition.

Neither Cromwell nor William of Orange could do with the Anglo-Saxon
what it woul