ew spread to Slavery. Let
the Senator proceed. It will not be the first time in history, that a
scaffold erected for punishment has become a pedestal of honor. Out of
death comes life, and the "traitor" whom he blindly executes will live
immortal in the cause.

"For Humanity sweeps onward; where to-day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands;
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return,
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn."

Among these hostile Senators, there is yet another, with all the
prejudices of the Senator from South Carolina, but without his generous
impulses, who, on account of his character before the country, and the
rancor of his opposition, deserves to be named. I mean the Senator from
Virginia (Mr. Mason), who, as the author of the Fugitive-Slave bill, has
associated himself with a special act of inhumanity and tyranny. Of him
I shall say little, for he has said little in this debate, though within
that little was compressed the bitterness of a life absorbed in the
support of Slavery. He holds the commission of Virginia; but he does not
represent that early Virginia, so dear to our hearts, which gave to us
the pen of Jefferson, by which the equality of men was declared, and
the sword of Washington, by which Independence was secured; but he
represents that other Virginia, from which Washington and Jefferson
now avert their faces, where human beings are bred as cattle for the
shambles, and where a dungeon rewards the pious matron who teaches
little children to relieve their bondage by reading the Book of Life.
It is proper that such a Senator, representing such a State, should rail
against free Kansas.

Senators such as these are the natural enemies of Kansas, and I
introduce them with reluctance, simply that the country may understand
the character of the hostility which must be overcome. Arrayed with
them, of course, are all who unite, under any pretext or apology, in
the propagandism of human Slavery. To such, indeed, the time-honored
safeguards of popular rights can be a name only, and nothing more. What
are trial by jury, habeas corpus, the ballot-box, the right of petition,
the liberty of Kansas, your liberty, sir, or mine, to one who lends
himself, not merely to the support at home, but to the propagandism
abroad, of that preposterous wrong, which denies even the right of a
man to himself! Such a cause can