ople of the United States, not because it
was not at one time within their power, but because at that time they
did not exert the power?

"What says the Preamble to the Constitution? How pregnant with a
conclusive answer is the Preamble, to the proposition that Slavery
cannot be abolished! What does that Preamble state to have been the
chief objects that the great and wise and good men had at heart, in
recommending the Constitution, with that Preamble, to the adoption of
the American People? That Justice might be established; that
Tranquillity might be preserved; that the common Defense and general
Welfare might be maintained; and, last and chief of all, that Liberty
might be secured.

"Is there no Justice in putting an end to human Slavery? Is there no
danger to the Tranquillity of the Country in its existence? May it not
interfere with the common Defense and general Welfare? And, above all,
is it consistent with any notion, which the mind of man can conceive, of
human Liberty?"

He held that the very Amendatory clause of the Constitution under which
it was proposed to make this Amendment, was probably inserted there from
a conviction of that coming time "when Justice would call so loudly for
the extinction of the Institution that her call could not be disobeyed,"
and, when "the Peace and Tranquillity of the Land would demand, in
thunder tones," its destruction, "as inconsistent with such Peace and
Tranquillity."

To the atrocious pretence that "there was a right to make a Slave of any
human being"--which he said would have shocked every one of the framers
of the Constitution had they heard it; and, what he termed, the nauseous
declaration that "Slavery of the Black race is of Divine origin," and
was intended to be perpetual; he said:

"The Saviour of Mankind did not put an end to it by physical power, or
by the declaration of any existing illegality, in word. His mission
upon Earth was not to propagate His doctrines by force. He came to
save, not to conquer. His purpose was not to march armed legions
throughout the habitable Globe, securing the allegiance of those for
whose safety He was striving. He warred by other influences. He aimed
at the heart, principally. He inculcated his doctrines, more ennobling
than any that the World, enlightened as it was before His advent upon
Earth, had been able to discover. He taught to Man the obligation of
brotherhood. He announced that the true duty of Man was