ombs, when he answered this part, cried out to the people impetuously:
"Did I dodge the question, when in the presence of two thousand people,
in the City of Augusta, and as I was about to travel in foreign lands,
I denounced the secret midnight organization which was being fastened
upon the freemen of the South? An organization whose chief measure was
to prescribe a religious test in this land of liberty, and raise up a
barrier to the entrance of the sons of the Old World, whose gallant
sires aided us in achieving our independence?

"Did I dodge, when, just before putting my foot on shipboard, I wrote a
letter to my beloved South, warning them against this insidious
organization creeping into their midst, piloted by dark lanterns to
midnight lodges? Did I dodge, when, hearing, as I traveled, that this
deadly order had taken hold and fastened its fangs in my State, I
suspended my travels and took the first ship that bore me back to my
native shores, and, raised my cry against these revolutionary measures?

"Did I dodge, when, as soon as landing in Georgia, I traveled all night
and spoke all next day against these blighting measures? If this be
called dodging, I admit that I dodged, and the gentleman can make the
most of it."

Mr. Hill declared that the Kansas-Nebraska bill embodied the principles
of "squatter sovereignty" and alien suffrage. The bill was not identical
with the Utah and New Mexico bill, as Toombs and Stephens had alleged.
The restrictive provisions of the Utah bill would prohibit this
Territorial Legislature from excluding slavery. It could not do that
until it became a State, while the Kansas bill allowed a majority of the
actual residents to determine whether slavery should or should not
exist, even prior to its admission as a State. He denounced the Kansas
bill as a cheat, a swindle, and a surrender of our dearest rights. As to
the National Convention, Mr. Hill declared that the South may have
framed the platform, but the North secured the candidate. Mr. Hill,
relative to territorial questions, recognized the right of native born
and naturalized citizens of the United States, permanently residing in
any Territory, to frame a constitution and laws and to regulate their
social and domestic affairs in their own way. The American party
proposed to extend the term required for naturalization and to bar the
foreigners from holding office. Mr. Hill had strong sympathizers in the
extreme Southern Rights' me