ur millions of slaves in their
chains, by seeking the overthrow of this Union!...

" ... I declare that this talk of leaving the slave to his fate is not a
true representation of the case; and it indicates a strange dullness of
comprehension with regard to our position and purpose. What! Is it to
forsake the slave when I cease to be the aider and abettor of his
master? What! When the North is pressing down upon four millions of
slaves like an avalanche, and we say to her, 'Take off that
pressure--stand aside--give the slave a chance to regain his feet and
assert his freedom!' is that turning our backs upon him? Here, for
example, is a man engaged in highway robbery, and another man is acting
as an accessory, without whose aid the robber cannot succeed. In saying
to the accomplice. 'Hands off! Don't aid the villain!' shall I be told
that this is enabling the highwayman to rob with impunity? What an
absurdity! Are we not trying to save the pockets of all travelers from
being picked in seeking to break up all connection with highway
robbery?"

The convention projected a general convention of the free States to
consider the subject, and "_Resolved_, That the sooner the separation
takes place, the more peaceful it will be; but that peace or war is _a
secondary consideration_ in view of our present perils. Slavery must be
conquered, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." The projected
general convention, owing to the monetary crisis of 1857, did not take
place; but the extraordinary public excitement on the slavery question
increased rather than diminished during the year. The increasing menace
to the domination of the slave-power from this source had become so
great that it was deemed prudent on the part of the upholders of that
power to allay it by means of an authoritative utterance upon the vexed
question of slavery in the national Territories from the highest
judicial tribunal in the Land. The Northern respect for the opinion of
the Supreme Court, the South and her allies in the free States counted
upon as the vehicle of the quieting medicament. For, if the Missouri
Compromise were pronounced by that Court unconstitutional and,
therefore, _ab initio_, null and void, no wrong was done the North
through its formal repeal by Congress. The act of abrogation, in this
view, added nothing to the South which did not belong to it as well
before as after its passage, detracted nothing from the North which was
justly its due