phant, in
consequence of their having renounced expediency, and taken their
stand on the broad principles of truth and justice.

* * * * *

MR. BRECKINRIDGE said, he had on so many occasions and in so many
different forms uttered the sentiments contained in the passages which
had just been read as his, that he was unable to say from what
particular speech or writing they were taken. But he had no doubt that
if the whole passage to which they belonged were read, it would be
seen that they contained, in addition to what they had heard, the most
unqualified condemnation of the irrational course pursued by the
abolitionists. He believed also, that, whatever it was, that writing
had been uttered by him in a slave state. For he could say for
himself, that he had never said that of a brother behind his back,
which he would be afraid or unwilling to repeat before his face. He
had never gone to Boston, to cry back to Baltimore, how great a sin
they were guilty of in upholding slavery. The worst things which he
had said against slavery had been said in the slave states, and had
Mr. Thompson gone there and seen with his two eyes, what he describes
wholly upon hearsay, he would, perhaps, have understood the subject
better than he seems to do. As he felt himself divinely commissioned,
he should have felt no fear, he should have gone at whatever hazard,
he should have seen slavery in its true colors, though he had read it
in his own blood. If Saul of Tarsus had gone to America to see
slavery--I dare to say, with the help of God, he would have been right
sure to see it. He did not say that Mr. T. should have gone to the
Southern states if his life was likely to be endangered by his going
there; but he would say this, that Mr. Thompson ought not to pretend,
that he had been, in the least degree, a martyr in the cause, when, in
reality, he had exercised the most masterly discretion. With regard to
the acts of the abolitionists, as he had been called on to mention
particulars, he could not say that he had ever heard of their having
killed any person, nor had he ever heard of any of them being killed.
He might mention, however, that he himself had once almost been mobbed
in Boston, and, that too, by a mob stirred up against him, by
placards, written, as he believed, by William Lloyd Garrison. He had
never obtained direct proof of this, but he might state, as a reason
for his belief, that the inflammatory p