in triumph through the State, and hailed with honour
while applauding that act. [Three groans for "_Dug_!"] And this shows
whither we are tending. This thing of slavery is more powerful than its
supporters--even than the high priests that minister at its altar. It
debauches even our greatest men. It gathers strength, like a rolling
snow-ball, by its own infamy. Monstrous crimes are committed in its name
by persons collectively which they would not dare to commit as
individuals. Its aggressions and encroachments almost surpass belief. In
a despotism, one might not wonder to see slavery advance steadily and
remorselessly into new dominions; but is it not wonderful, is it not
even alarming, to see its steady advance in a land dedicated to the
proposition that "all men are created equal"? [Sensation.]

It yields nothing itself; it keeps all it has, and gets all it can
besides. It really came dangerously near securing Illinois in 1824; it
did get Missouri in 1821. The first proposition was to admit what is now
Arkansas _and_ Missouri as one slave State. But the territory was
divided, and Arkansas came in, without serious question, as a slave
State; and afterward Missouri, not as a sort of equality, _free_, but
also as a slave State. Then we had Florida and Texas; and now Kansas is
about to be forced into the dismal procession. [Sensation.] And so it is
wherever you look. We have not forgotten--it is but six years since--how
dangerously near California came to being a slave State. Texas is a
slave State, and four other slave States may be carved from its vast
domain. And yet, in the year 1829, slavery was abolished throughout
that vast region by a royal decree of the then sovereign of Mexico. Will
you please tell me by what _right_ slavery exists in Texas to-day? By
the same right as, and no higher or greater than, slavery is seeking
dominion in Kansas: by political force--peaceful, if that will suffice;
by the torch (as in Kansas) and the bludgeon (as in the Senate chamber),
if required. And so history repeats itself; and even as slavery has kept
its course by craft, intimidation, and violence in the past, so it will
persist, in my judgment, until met and dominated by the will of a people
bent on its restriction.

We have, this very afternoon, heard bitter denunciations of Brooks in
Washington, and Titus, Stringfellow, Atchison, Jones, and Shannon in
Kansas--the battle-ground of slavery. I certainly am not going to
advocat