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Class 
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 .T37_ 
 
THE SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. ELI THAYER, OF MASS. 
 
 // 
 
 ^: 
 
 Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 25, 1858. 
 
 It may be expected, Mr. Chairman, that at this 
 time I should say something in defence of the 
 Pilgrims, and of the State of Massachusetts; for 
 they have been repeatedly assailed on this floor, 
 within the last two weeks. But I shall make no 
 defence. There are some things which I never 
 attempt to defend. Among these are the Falls 
 of Niagara, the White Mountains of New Hamp- 
 ' shire, the Atlantic Ocean, Plymouth Rock, Bunker 
 Hill, and the hisfory of Massachusetts. Any 
 man may assail either or all of them with per- 
 fect impunity, so far as I am concerned. Any 
 words of disparagement or vituperation directed 
 against either of these objects, by any assailant, 
 excite in me feelings very different from those of 
 indignation — whether the assailant comes with a 
 bow as long as^ that of the bold Robin Hood, 
 or with a bow of shorter range, like that of the 
 gentleman from Alabama, [Mr. Shorter.] 
 [Laughter.] But I deprecate the disposition that 
 impels these shafts against the sister States of 
 this Confederacy. I deprecate this sectional ani- 
 mosity whenever and wherever I see it evinced. 
 I have heard too much of the aggressions of the 
 North and of the aggressions of the South, in the 
 past, to be very much in love with either of these 
 ideas. I have never been accustomed to speak 
 of the aggressions of the slave power, and I have 
 no purpose of doing it now or herffafter. If the 
 one-hundredth part of the people of this country 
 can make dangerous aggressions on the rights 
 and interests of the other ninety-nine hundredth 
 parts of the people, either by the force of strength 
 or by the arts of diplomacy, I assure you that I 
 will be the last man to complain of it. I think 
 that this Slavery question is altogether too small 
 a question to disturb so great a people as inhabit 
 the United States of America. 
 
 For myself, I was always in favor of popular 
 sovereignty, rightly so called. I am ready, for 
 one, to agree to-day tiiat the Territories belong- 
 ing to this Government shall be open to settle- 
 ment at any time when Congress thinks fit so to 
 open them, and that the people of all parts of 
 the country shall go into them with the assurance 
 of absolute and complete non-intervention ; with the 
 
 assurance that whenever any chief Executive, 
 official, or non-resident, shall interfere, by fraud 
 or violence, in their affairs, he shall either be 
 impeached or hanged ; with the assurance that 
 when the people shall have the ratio of repre- 
 sentation required by law, and shall come to 
 Congress with a Constitution republican inform, 
 they shall be admitted into the Union as a State. 
 This, sir, is popular sovereignty, and it is what 
 was practiced in this country two centuries ago. 
 
 The people of the Plymouth colony had the 
 privilege of choosing their own Governor, and of 
 making their own laws. The same was true of 
 the New Haven colony, and of the colony of the 
 Providence Plantations. They always did it. I 
 believe the Crown of England never appointed a 
 Governor for these colonies; certainly not for 
 the last two. But were those people, without 
 ever having exercised the right of self-govern- 
 ment, better prepared to govern themselves than 
 are our people, educated under our State Gov- 
 ernments, who go into our Territories? Why, 
 then, should we continue to have an " Ahab to 
 trouble Israel," while he lays the blaiue of his 
 own misconduct upon the emigrant aid societies ? 
 Why not cut off these Territories from all con- 
 nection with the General Government, legislative 
 or executive? Then we shall have no more agi- 
 tation in Congress, and no more contention in 
 the Territories. But so long as this connection 
 continues, so long as we have a President trying 
 to bias, by his appointments, and perhaps by the 
 United States troops, the will of the people, so 
 long shall we have agitation, and we shall have 
 enough of it. 
 
 Well, sir, I have nothing to find fault about, 
 I am very well pleased with the present tendency 
 of events. But, sir, there are those who are dis- 
 satisfied, and who are inclined to invoke a certain 
 deity — I think a false deity — which presides over 
 a portion of this Union ; a deity which has been 
 invoked by great men on great occasions, and by 
 little men on little occasions, for a long time 
 past — a deity in whose expected presence both 
 the people and the politicians have sometimes 
 stood aghast — "when he," in prospect only, 
 
r 
 
 "from liis horrid hair shook pestilence and war." 
 This sulphurous god is Disunion. This Capitol 
 Hill has been a veritable Mount Carmel for the 
 last quarter of a century, upon which experiments 
 have been tried with this bogus deity. One day 
 upon Mount Carmel was sufficient to determine 
 the destiny of Baal and his prophets. But here, 
 we, the most patient people in the world, wit- 
 ness these mvocii.iions year afler year, with exem- 
 plary endurance, expecting that the great Is-to-be 
 will some time come. And you and I, Jlr. Chair- 
 man, even during the present session of Con- 
 gress, have witnessed attempts to kindle here 
 the fires upon the altar of Southern rights. But 
 the sacrifice, the altar, and the spectators, were 
 as cold as alabaster. The prophets only were 
 warm; but they were warm, not from the pres- 
 ence of the god, but from his absence. He does 
 not make his appearance. The great Is-to-be 
 does not come. He has either gone on a very 
 long journey, or else he is in a very deep sleep. 
 
 A\'ell, sir, shall we have this deity of Disunion 
 invoked forever? Who is to blame? If the 
 North has given cause, what have we done ? 
 What cause of disunion has ever proceeded from 
 us? Have you not had everything your own 
 way? Have we not let you have the Democratic 
 party to use as you please? [Laughter.] Have 
 you not had the Government for a long time ? 
 And have we not let you use it just as you had 
 a mind to? We, sir, were busy about our com- 
 merce, extending it around the world; about otir 
 railroads; our internal improvements; our col- 
 leges, and all those things which interest our 
 people. We knew that you had a taste for gov- 
 erning, and that by the indulgence you might be 
 gratified without serious injury to us. For many 
 years you have had your own vray, but now you 
 come here and cry out "disunion." Why, what 
 more nni we do ? 
 
 Well, it may be that we have encouraged a 
 mistake on your part. It may be that we have 
 given you some reason to suppose that this tem- 
 porary courtesy of governing, which we have 
 extended, was a permanent right. However, if 
 you have fallen into that error, we will, perhaps, 
 at some future time disabuse and correct you. 
 But wliatever blame there is anywhere, w'hattver 
 cause lliere is for disunion, must attach to the 
 action of the slave power, commanding and 
 controlling the Democratic party, and to no one 
 else in the country. Tiierefore, at this time, I 
 come with exultation — not, to be sure, with ma- 
 lignant exultation — to speak for a few moments 
 upon the decline and fall of Slavery — nay, sir, 
 further, upon the suicide of Slavery in this land. 
 I will show you by what acts the two most im- 
 portant pillars of its sui)port have been removed, 
 and tliat the whole system of Slavery must there- 
 fore fall. And these two events have been ac- 
 complished, if not by its direct efforts, at least 
 by the connivance of this same party, impelled 
 by this same controlling agency. 
 
 I will first show you how the moral ])Ower of 
 this institution hag been destroyed, by what act, 
 and then I will show you iiow and l)y what act 
 its political power is forever'rioomed. But, sir, 
 how did an iustitutioa like this ever have a 
 
 moral power? is a qtiestion for us to examine, 
 in the first place, we are told by Southern men 
 that we have a nation of heathen in our land ; 
 and we are told by the same authoritj- that we 
 liave an institution here for their regeneration. 
 Now, sir, if we have, from necessity, a nation of 
 heathen in otir land, and if Slavery is an insti- 
 tution for their regeneration, it is very clear that 
 Slavery has a moral power. But, says the gen- 
 tleman from Georgia, [Mr. Gartrell,] speaking 
 of negroes, "They are idle, dissolute, improvident, 
 ' lazy, unthrifty, who think not of to-morrow, who 
 ' provide but scantily for to-day." 
 
 I will also give you other proof. Here it is : 
 "Who would credit it, that in these years of 
 ' benevolent and successful missionary effort, in 
 ' this Christian Republic, there are over two mil- 
 ' lions of human beings in ike condition of heathen, 
 ' and in some respects in a worse condition? 
 ' From long-continued and close observation, we 
 ' believe their moral and religious condition is 
 ' such that they m.ay justly be regarded as the 
 ' heathen of this Ciiristian country.'' — Committee 
 of Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in 1833. 
 
 "After making all reasonable allowances, our 
 ' colored population can be considered, at the 
 ' best, but set7ii-heathens." — Kentucky Union^s Cir- 
 cular to the Ministers of the Gospel in Kentucky^ 
 1834. 
 
 " There seems to be an almost entire absence 
 ' of moral principle among the mass of our col- 
 ' ored population." — C. W. Goocli, Exq., I'rize 
 Essay on Ayriculture in Virginia. 
 
 " There needs no stronger illustration of the 
 ' doctrine of depravity than the state of human 
 ' nature on plantations in general. * * * 
 ' Their advance in years is but a progression 
 ' to the higher grades of iniquity." — J/on. C. C. 
 Pinckney, Address before the Soiith Carolina Agri- 
 cultural Society, Charleston, 1829, second edition, 
 pages 10, 12. 
 
 The Maryville (Tennessee) Intelligencer, of Oc- 
 tober 4, 1835, says of the slaves of the Southwest, 
 that their "condition through time will he second 
 only to that of the wretched creatures in hell." 
 
 Here, then, is a field for great missionary la- 
 bor ; and it is fortunate that under these circum- 
 stances we happen to have an institution which 
 is pcrfectlj' adapted to the regeneration of a lost 
 and ruined race. I quote from the honorable 
 member from the State of Virginia, in a speech 
 delivered here, some time ago, in the House of 
 Representatives : 
 
 " I believe that the institution of Slavery is a 
 ' noble one; that it is necessary for the good, 
 ' the well being, of the negro race. Looking to 
 ' history, I go further, and I say, in the presence 
 ' of this iissembly, and under all the imposing 
 ' circumstances surrounding me, that I believe 
 ' it is God's institution. Yes, sir, if tiiere is any- 
 ' thing in the action of the great Author of us 
 ' all; if there is anything in the conduct of His 
 chosen people; if there is anything in the con- 
 ' duct of Christ himself, who came upon this 
 ' earth, and 3'iehied uj) His life as a sacrifice, that 
 ' all through His death might live; if there is 
 ' anything in the conduct of His Apostles, who 
 ' inculcated obedience on the part of slaves to- 
 
' wards their masters as a Christian duty, then 
 ' we must believe that the institution is from 
 ' God." — Hon. Win. Smith, of Virijinia, in a speech 
 in the House of Rcjjresentaiivcs. 
 
 Again, I quote from the speech of the honora- 
 ble gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Gautrell,] in 
 regard to this same sentiment : "v 
 
 " Every sentiment expressed in that eloquent 
 ' extract meets my hearty approbation. As a 
 ' Christian man, believing in the teachings of 
 ' Holy Writ, I am here to-day before a Christian 
 ' nation to reaffirm and reannounoe the conclu- 
 ' sion to which that distinguished gentleman 
 ' came— that this institution, however much it 
 ' may hare been reviled, is of God." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, these are not the only authori- 
 ties on this subject. You and I have heard from 
 the other side, day after day, quotations from the 
 Bible, intending to prove the same thing ; and 
 you and I know that there a.re honest men in the 
 slave States who believe that this is a fact. I 
 have seen such men myself, and have conversed 
 with them. They have told me that Slavery was 
 an absolute curse ; and that the only reason why 
 they held their slaves a day was, that they owed 
 them certain religious duties, and must keep 
 them to look after their spiritual welfare. They 
 feared that if their slaves were cast loose upon 
 the world, with nobody to look after their spirit- 
 ual interests, they would be spiritually lost. I 
 heard this from a gentleman from Kentucky, and 
 again from a gentleman from Augusta, Georgia, 
 and I believe in my heart that both of these gen- 
 tlemen were honest in these views. 
 
 I am not here to impugn an}'' man's motives. 
 I put this upon the ground that is claime'd by 
 Southern men ; and when I listened to the gen- 
 tlemen on the other side, reading honestly from 
 the sacred volume in defence of this institution, 
 as coming from God, and as a means for the re- 
 generation of a heathen race in our land, I felt 
 impelled to use the language of the Apostle to 
 the 'Gentiles, which he employed on Mars Hill : 
 " Oh ! Athenians, I perceive that in all things ye 
 are exceedingly given to religion." [Laughter.] 
 Now, sir, since this institution has done all it 
 ever can in this capacity, and since it is now de- 
 stroyed as a converting and regenerating power, 
 I stand here to give it its proper place in eccle- 
 siastical history, for its right place it has never 
 yet had. 
 
 In order to understand what position it is en- 
 titled to, we must, to some extent, speak by com- 
 parison, because we cannot speak absolutely on 
 these matters of religion. The religious journals 
 of the free States have oftentimes most unrea- 
 sonably exulted over our religious efforts, when 
 they contrasted them with the efforts of our 
 Southern brethren. I have seen placed in paral- 
 lel columns, in Northern journals, the contribu- 
 tions of the free States and the contributions of 
 the slave States ; and there were mighty words 
 of exultation, unbecoming a Christian journal 
 or Christian people at any time, when it was 
 shown that our contributions for foreign mis- 
 sions were a hundred-fold more than yours. It 
 is true we make more contributions. The city 
 of Boston gives, for foreign missions, perhaps 
 
 more than all the slave States ; and the city of 
 New York ])erhaps more than Boston. But what 
 of that? We give a few cents apiece, and only 
 a few cents, for foreign missions each year, which 
 amounts to a great sum, because we are a great 
 people. We send men to. heathen nations far 
 over the water, to tell them about their future 
 destiny. We are careful not to send our best men; 
 we keep our Notts and Waylauds, and our 
 Beechers and Cheevers, at home ; but sometimes 
 a Judson escapes from us before we know what 
 he is. This is about the extent we submit to self- 
 sacrifice for the sake of the heathen. 
 
 Is there any cause for exultation in this, when 
 we see what our Southern brethren have done 
 and are doing? When have we ever taken the 
 heathen to our hearth-stones and to our bosoms? 
 When have we ever admitted the heathen to 
 social communion with ourselves and our chil- 
 dren? When have we ever taken the heathen 
 to our large cities to show them the works of art, 
 or to the watering places to show them fashion- 
 able society and beautiful scenery ? Did you ever 
 see a Yankee at the White Sulphur Springs shed- 
 ding a benign religious influence over a little con- 
 gregation of heathen companions ? [Laughter.] 
 We have pious women in the Northern States, 
 whose bright example has made attractive the 
 paths of virtue and religion. Conspicuous among 
 them, in every good work, are the wives of our 
 ministers and deacons ; but not one of these, 
 within the range of my acquaintance, would con- 
 sider herself qualified, either by nature or by 
 grace, to be chambermaid, dry-nurse, and spirit- 
 ual adviser, to ten or twenty heathens in her own. 
 family. But, sir, had these worthy dames been. 
 yioble dames ; had they come down to us from the 
 blood of the Norman Kings, through the bound- 
 ing pulses of sundry cavaliers, and then had 
 been willing to assume these humble offices of 
 Christian charity, we should have believed the 
 time, so often prayed for, had already come, when 
 " kings should be fathers and queens nursing 
 mothers in the church." Where, then, is the 
 ground for this exultation on the part of the 
 North? I tell you that it cannot be prompted 
 by anything but a rotund, bulbous, self-righteous- 
 ness. So much, then, for the social sacrifices of 
 our Southern brethren. 
 
 What other sacrifices have they made to regen- 
 erate this race? Great moral and intellectual 
 sacrifices. T will read what Southern men say 
 on this subject : 
 
 Judge Tucker, of Virginia, said in 1801 : 
 
 " I say nothrng of the baneful effects of Slave- 
 ' ry on our moral character, because you know I 
 ' have long been sensible of this point." 
 
 The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and 
 Georgia said, in their report of 18:^4 : 
 
 " Those only who have the management of 
 ' these servants know what the hardening effect 
 ' of it is upon their own feelings towards them." 
 
 Judge Summers, of Virginia, said, in a speech 
 in 1832, in almost the same words : 
 
 " A slave population producs the most perni- 
 ' cious effects upon tlie manners, habits, and 
 ' character, of those among whom it exists." 
 
Jurige Nichols, of Kentncty, in a speech in 
 1837, said : 
 
 " The deliberate convictions of my most ma- 
 ' tured consideration are, that the institution of 
 ' Slavery is a most serious injury to the habits, 
 ' manners, and moral?, of our white population; 
 ' that it leads, to sloth, indolence, dissipation, 
 ' and vice." 
 
 So said Mr. Jefferson : 
 
 '• The man must be a prodigy who can retain 
 ' his manners and morals uncontaminated " [in 
 the midst of Slavery.] 
 
 John Randolph, on the floor of Congress, said : 
 " Where are the trophies of this infernal tratlic? 
 • The handcuff, the manacle, the blood-stained 
 ' cowhide 1 What man is worse received in 
 ' society for being a hard master? Who denies 
 < the hand of sister or daughter to such mon- 
 ' sters ? " 
 
 I might quote a hundred other Southern 
 authorities of the same kind, showing the bane- 
 ful effect of this institution upon the moral and 
 in'ellectual character of the South. I might also 
 quote from the United States census. 1 have 
 the papers here, but time will not allow. 
 
 Now, in addition to these moral and intellect- 
 ual sacrifices which our Southern brethren ad- 
 mit, there are pecuniary sacrifices which you 
 know to be very great ; indeed, had Virginia 
 been free fifty years ago, had she been exempt 
 from this great tendency to christianize the Af- 
 rican race, she would have been worth more this 
 day than are all the Atlantic States south of New 
 Jersey. And should she by any chance become 
 free, you will see her wealth and her population 
 increase in proportion as this mfssionary spirit is 
 diminished. [Laughter.] It is true, our South- 
 ern brethren, impressed with this great idea of 
 christianizing the African race, having for their 
 only ambition to present the souls of their ne- 
 groes, without spot or blemish, before the throne 
 of the Paternal, have sacrificed almost everything. 
 I could quote from Soutliernmen upon this sub- 
 ject. The sagacious statesman who governs the 
 Old Dominion, in a speech a few years ago, said: 
 " But in all the four cardinal resources — won- 
 ' derful to tell, disagreeable to tell, shanieful to 
 ' announce— but one source of all four, in time 
 ' past, has been employed to produce wealth. 
 ' We have had no -work in manufacturing, and 
 ' commerce has spread its wings and flown from 
 ' us, and agriculture has only skimmed the sur- 
 « face of mother earth. Three out of the four 
 < cardinal virtues have been idl«; our young 
 ' men, over their cigars and toddy., have been 
 ' talking politics, and the negroes have been left 
 « to themselves, until we have all grown poor 
 ' together." 
 
 But trials, and tribulations, and poverty, have 
 ever beset the pathway of the saints. In the 
 earliest days, they -'wandered about in sheep- 
 skins and poat-skins, persecuted, afllicted, tor- 
 mented." Even now, in the nineteenth century, 
 the condition of our Southern brethren is not 
 much improved, since they are compelled "to 
 chase the stump-tailed steer over sedge patches 
 which oatehino the sun, to get a tough steak," , 
 
 and to listen to the perpetual cry of "debts I 
 debts!" "taxes! taxes!" 
 
 In this age of material progress, you have seen 
 the North outstrip you; but, with true Christian 
 patience and Christian devotion, you have ad- 
 hered to the great work of regenerating the 
 heathen. [Laughter.] Through evil report and 
 through good report, reproached and maligned 
 abroad by those who did not understand your 
 motives, and, worst of all, sometimes abused at 
 home by the ungrateful objects of your Christian 
 charity, you have still pressed on towards the 
 mark of your high calling. Now, sir, when was 
 there ever a class of men so devoted and so self- 
 sacrificing? 1 have read the history of the Apos- 
 tles ; I have read the history of the Relormers, 
 of the Scotch Covenanters, of the Huguenots, and 
 of the Crusaders; and 1 tell you, not in one or 
 all of these have I seen any such heroic self-sac- 
 rifice for the good of another race, or for the 
 good of other men, as I do see in the history of 
 vhese slave States. 'I have seen Fox's Book of 
 Martyrs, but there is nothing in that to compare 
 at all with the martyrs of the South. The cen- 
 sus of the United States is the greatest book of 
 martyrs ever printed. [Laughter.] Other books 
 treat' of martyrs, as individuals: the census of 
 the United Stales treats of them by counties and 
 by States. 1 can see how a man, impressed with 
 a grand and noble sentiment, should perhaps, 
 in excitement or in an emergency, give up his life 
 in support of it; but I cannot see how a man can 
 sacrifice his friends, his family, and his country, 
 for a religious idea or an abstraction. 
 
 Hero, tben, sir, is the position of our Southern 
 brethren upon this subject. But the worst is yet 
 to be told— the doleful conclusion of the whole 
 matter. They have made sacrifices, and it seems 
 to me that they were entitled to the rewards for 
 them; and I doubt not that they have often con- 
 soled themselves in contemplating the rewards in 
 the future which must await them for such good 
 services in the present. I have no doubt, sir, 
 that oftentimes, seeing they have not treasures 
 laid up on earth, they supposed they had treas- 
 ures laid up in heaven. [Laughter.] But just 
 at that time when they seemed to be almost in 
 the fruition of their labors, when the gentleman 
 from Missouri, [Mr. Axdeuson',] in great exulta- 
 tion of spirit, was speaking of the institution 
 that had raised the negro irom barbarism to 
 Christianity and civilization, and when tlie gen- 
 tleman from Indiina, [Mr. IlnnnKS,] had caught 
 the inspiration, and said, that although tlie body 
 of the African might be toiling under the lash, 
 " his soul was free, and could converse on the 
 sublimest jirinciples of science and philosophy " — 
 when faith had almost become sight— just then, 
 sir, out comes the Supreme Court with the decis- 
 ion that 
 A NKGRO HAS NO SOUL! [Laughter.] 
 " Angels and ministers of grace delend us ! " All 
 these ireasures that were sujiposed to have been 
 laid up " where neither moth nor rust doth cor- 
 rupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 
 steal," have been invaded by the decision of the 
 Supreme Court, and scattered to the four winds of 
 heaven. Mbre than two centuries of prayers and 
 
tears, of heroic self-sacrifice and Christian devo- 
 tion, of faith and hope, of temporal and spiritual 
 agony, have come to this " lame and impotent 
 conclusion." [Laughter.] The moral dignity 
 of the grandest missionary enterprise of this age 
 is annihilated. 
 
 As a Northern man, I stand here a disin- 
 terested spectator of these events. If I do not 
 like the decision of the court, I have a higher 
 lavr. The negro himself can appeal to the court 
 of heaven ; but what refuge has the Southern 
 church? [Renewed laughter.] None whatever. 
 This decision fs a blow, direct and terrible, fall- 
 ing with crushing violence upon our Southern 
 brethren. This Supreme Court, with cruel and 
 relentless hostility, has persecuted the Southern 
 church as the dragon of the Apocalypse pur- 
 sued the woman into the wilderness, seeking to 
 devour her offspring. [Much laughter.] 
 
 What motives could have impelled the court to 
 this act? I have no doubt a patriotic motive. lam 
 not here to impugn the motives of any man, or of 
 any set of men, much less of the highest judicial 
 tribunal in this land. No doubt, sir, their motives 
 were patriotic, for they had witnessed the devas- 
 tation of this terrible religious fanaticism through 
 the South. They had seen the ravages of this 
 disastrous missionary monomania, and they de- 
 termined that there must be au end of it ; and 
 how could they so etfectually end it as by anni- 
 hilating at once the object of its aims and aspi- 
 rations. That, sir, they have done. 
 
 Here, then, endeth the moral power of the insti- 
 tution of Slavery. 
 
 I come now to the consideration of the event 
 which just as surely has doomed to destruction 
 Va^ political power of that institution — I mean the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise measure in 
 the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. That 
 act, sir, 1 will show to you — if it ever was com- 
 mitted by the slave power — to have been a suicidal 
 act. What need was there for repealing that 
 Compromise, or of admitting^ Slavery into Kansas 
 hij law ? Was not the South sure enough of the 
 Territory as it was before? I think — and this is 
 my honest conviction — that had it not been for 
 that act, Kansas would have been inevitably a 
 slave State. W^e of the North had no particular 
 interest in that Territory. It was put down in 
 our geographies as the great American desert. 
 AVe had not considered it of much importance ; 
 but we relied on the laiv .to keep Slavery out of 
 it, and to preserve it to Freedom. We of the 
 North have had too high an idea of the power of 
 the General Government and of law, either for 
 Freedom or against Freedom. Sir, this General 
 Government has but little power over this ques- 
 tion. It is not a motive power. It is only a reg- 
 istrr/, an exponent of power. It is the log-book 
 of the ship of State, and not the steam-engine 
 that propels the ship, or the wind that fills the 
 canvas. We would like to have the log-book 
 kept right, to show us our true position ; but we 
 do not now consider the Government as the mo- 
 tive power. The motive power of this nation, as of 
 all nations, is the people in their homes ; and as 
 the people in their hoiiies are, so is your character 
 and so is your progress. If the people in their 
 
 homes in Kansas had been Pro-Slavery, what could 
 the North have opposed to it? it was emigration, 
 and emigration only, that could have made Kansas 
 a State, either slave or tree. The great law that 
 governs emigration is t^his: that emigration fol- 
 lows the parallels of latitude westward. Under 
 that law. Kansas would have been settled entirely 
 by a Pro-Slavery people, as was the southern part 
 of Indiana, and as was the southern part of Illinois. 
 We in the North, trusting in the protection of the 
 la^v, would have had no remedy. People in favor 
 of Slavery would have gone there, and it they 
 were compelled at first to adopt a free Constitu- 
 tion in order to shape their institutions according 
 to any law concerning the Territory, they might 
 have soon reversed that position. In fact, the 
 decision of the Supreme Court has now made 
 any such thing unnecessary. They might have 
 formed just such a Constitution as they pleased. 
 Well, then, we would thus, in all probability, 
 have had Kansas a slave State without the Kan- 
 sas-Nebraska bill. But the passage of that bill, 
 if Slavery had been probable before, seemed to the 
 miijority of the people in the North to make it 
 almost inevitable. History warranted this fear. 
 Judging from the case of Indiana, there seemed 
 to be no chance whatever for Freedom in Kansas, 
 after the opportunity for Slavery to enter there 
 had been given. There was Missouri on the 
 confines of the Territory — and the most densely- 
 peopled portion of Mi::Souri, too. Freedom-lov- 
 ing men, desiring to go to that Territory, would 
 have had to travel hundreds and thousands of 
 miles. The men who lived on the line of Kan- 
 sas, as well as other Southern men who enter- 
 tained the same idea — though they did not ex- 
 press it then, for fear of losing the bill — antici- 
 pated that the passage of the bill would settle the 
 question for Slavery in Kansas forever. That 
 was the evidence of the early history of Indiana. 
 When tnat Territory was opened for settlement, 
 a few slaveholders, perhaps a dozen or a score, 
 went over from Kentucky, and, contrary to the 
 wishes both of the President and Congress, con- 
 trary to the ordinance of 1787, established Sla- 
 very; and they obtained such control over that 
 young Territory, that petitions, signed by many 
 of the inhabitants, praying Congress to suspend 
 the prohibition of Slavery, were presented to 
 Congress, year after year, from 1803 to 1807. 
 These few slaveholders of the Territory of In- 
 diana acquired such control over the inhabitants 
 of that Territory, because they were an organiza- 
 tion, as Slavery is everywhere and at all times 
 an organization. It was a concentration of cap- 
 ital, a concentration of infiuence, and a concen- 
 tration of power, which our emigrants from the 
 free States, coming one by one, were unable to 
 resist ; and had it not been for the overwhelminir 
 population which poured in from the North in 
 1807 and 1808, the prohibition of Slavery won d 
 have been suspended. Had it not been tbr John 
 Randolph, it would have been suspended in 180S • 
 and had it not been for Mr. Franklin in the Sen' 
 ate. It might have been suspended in 1807- and 
 both of these were Southern men. ' 
 
 Well sir, I have said that slaveholders arc 
 everywhere an organization. There is a commu- 
 
6 
 
 nity of interest, a bond of feeling and of sym- 
 pathy, wbicli combines and concentrates all 
 etforts to defend Slavery where it is, and to exr 
 tend it to places where it is not. I will quote 
 from the last number of Be Bow's Review, every^ 
 where acknowledged lo be good Southern author- 
 ity. In an article defending the New England 
 Emigrant Aid Gonijjauj', the writer says : 
 
 " We of the South have been practicing ' Or- 
 ' ganized Emigration' for a century, and hence 
 ' have outstripped the North in the acquisition 
 ' of land. The owner of a hundred slaves, who, 
 ' with his overseer, moves to the West, carries 
 ' out a self-supporting, self-insuring, well-organ- 
 ' ized community. This is the sort of ' Organ- 
 ' ixed Emigration' which experience shows suits 
 ' the South and the negro r;ice, whilst Mr. Thay- 
 ' cr's is equally well adapted to the whites." 
 
 Then, what fault can be found with our efibrts to 
 organize Freedom by means of our emigrant aid 
 societies, that enable our citizens to go to the Terri- 
 tory in companies of twenty, fifty, one hundred, or 
 two hundred, to take possession of the AVest, and 
 to locate there the institutions under Avhich they 
 choose lo live ? 
 
 And here I come to the defence of this asso- 
 ciation. It has been assailed, time and again, 
 on this floor, and I have never been allowed even 
 the privilege of putting questions to its assail- 
 ants. The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Ander- 
 son] called it " illegal and unconstitutional." It 
 has been so assailed by the successor of Millard 
 Fillmore. But where is the proof? Which of 
 its acts has been shown to be illegal or uncon- 
 stitutional? If it was illegal and unconstitu- 
 tional, why has not the organization been crush- 
 ed by the courts? We contend that any organi- 
 zation which is allowed to continue its existence 
 from year to year, and to carry on its business, 
 has the presutui>tion, at least, of a legal right to 
 do so. We claim that for the Emigrant Aid Com- 
 pany. 
 
 But the gentleman from I\Iissouri professes to 
 have authority in regard to this matter. He has 
 said that we maji employ this emigrant aid so- 
 ciety in promoting emigration to Central Amer- 
 ica and to foreign countries, but that we must 
 ^'■beware'' how we do so in colonizing the Terri- 
 tories of this Government. Mr. Chairman, if the 
 gentleman from Jlissouri has any authority in 
 these premises, I hope he will exercise it. 1 ask 
 him to publish a hand-book for emigrants, telling 
 us how we may go into a Territory; whether 
 we mail ride or laual go on foot ; whether we 
 may take our wives and children with us, or 
 vmsl leave them at home; whether we may take 
 some of our neighbors with us, with their agri- 
 cultural implements and steam-enjiines, or 
 whether we iimat go into the Territories without 
 any neighbors whatever; whether we maii get 
 horses or oxen from the free Slates, or whether 
 we must content ourselves to take mules from 
 the State of Missouri. [Ijaiigh'er.] 
 
 Now, sir, let us have not only the book, but 
 the reasons for it. Let us know liow far we may 
 go, according to llie law, in this matter of emigra- 
 tion. 1 recommend the genlleman from Missouri 
 to take some lessons from the gentkmua from 
 
 Mississippi [Mr. Quitman] on the rights of emigra- 
 tion. I think he can get broader views upon this 
 sut)ject, if he will consult that gentleman, and I 
 think he will allow Northern men to go to the 
 places which thej' have a right to go to by the law 
 of this land, in such society, if it be law-abiding, 
 as they may choose to select for themselves. 
 
 I have said that the great general law of emi- 
 gration is, that the emigrants shall follow the 
 parallels of latitude in this country. There are 
 some exceiJtions to this. The gold in California 
 led our emigrants from the extreme North across 
 many parallels of latitude. That was a Eufllcient 
 disturbiog cause. The existence of Slavery in 
 the slave States of this country has driven thir- 
 ty-five out of every hundred emigrants across 
 northern, parallels to the free Statc-s of the 
 Union. That was another great and powerful 
 cause. Bnt there is another cause sufficient to 
 carry emigration southward over parallels of 
 latitude. That is, the argument of cheap lands, 
 with the additional advantage of organized emi- 
 gration. The oVjjections that have heretofore 
 existed among Northern men to settling in South- 
 ern States are, by this mode of emigrating, en- 
 tirely obviated. The Northern man, with his 
 family of children, would not heretofore go into 
 a Southern State, in the absence of schools and 
 churches. But when, combined with one or two 
 hundred, or one or two thousand, of his friends 
 and neighbors, he goes into a slave State, he 
 carries with him schools and churches, and the 
 mechanic arts, all these difliculiies are obviated; 
 and, besides, he has the inducement of going 
 where the land can be bough t at slave-State prices, 
 in the expectation of finding it come up probably 
 in a few years to free-State prices, which are 
 five or six times greater than slave-State prices. 
 Here is the greatinducementof increasing wealth. 
 Let a colony start frorn Massachusetts, and settle 
 on almost any land in the State of Virginia — in 
 Greenville, Southampton, Dinwiddle, or Acco- 
 mac, where the lands do not average so high as 
 three dollars an acre, by the census of 1850 — ■ 
 and the very day they settle there, the value of 
 theland is more than doubled. There is better 
 land for sale to-day in Tennessee and North Caro- 
 lina, for fifty cents per acre, than can be bjught 
 for ten times that sum in any free State. 
 
 How can such an appeal to the migrating 
 population of the North, in favor of organized em- 
 gration to the slave States, be resisted ? 1 know 
 of no means of resisting it. Certainly you can 
 have no reason for resisting it, but every reason 
 to encourage it. We do not come as your 
 enemies ; we come as your friends. We do 
 not come to violate your laws, but to improve 
 our own condition. This movement south- 
 ward is destined to continue and to increase. 
 Sir, if Slavery were as sacred as the Ark of 
 the Covenant, and if it were defended by an- 
 gels, 1 doubt whether it could wiihstand tlie 
 progress of this ago and the money-making ten- 
 dencies of the Yankee. But it is not as sacred 
 as the Ark of the Covenant, and nobody believes 
 that it is defended by angels. 
 
 But, sir, there begins to be an enlightened idea 
 i in these border slave StaTes upon this subject. 
 
I 
 
 A year ago, Vhen I proposed to plant a few 
 colonies in Virginia, several journals in the Old 
 Dominion threatened me with hemi) and grape- 
 vine if I should ever set foot in that Territory. 
 "Well, I thought I Avoulfl make the experiment. 
 I went into western Virginia and into eastern 
 Kentucky. I addressed numerous audiences in 
 both of those States, and everywhere where 1 
 asked the people if they had any objection to their 
 land being worth four or five times wj^at it was, 
 they said " No." [Laughter.] I asked them if 
 they had any objection to the manufacture of 
 ploughs and wagons in Wayne couuty. There 
 never had been a manufacturing establishment 
 between the Big Sandy and Guyandot. Though 
 no portion of this continent is better situated for 
 manufacturing purposes, having more than thirty 
 thousand miles of river communication, whifh 
 affords cheap transportation to the best markets, 
 with a healtlay climate and inexhaustible supplies 
 of coal and iron and timber of the best quality. 
 Yet, every manufactured article was imported 
 into this Natural Paradise of mechanics. There 
 was not a newspaper published between the two 
 rivers. I asked if they had any objection to a good, 
 substantial, business newsi)aper published there, 
 and to have schools and churches and the 
 mechanic arts established in that county. With 
 one voice they replied — "None, whatever." 
 " We welcome you to our county, and to all its 
 advantages." This was a generous and manly 
 reception, worthy of the history of the Old Do- 
 minion. At every meeting we were wel- 
 comed by the unanimous voice of the people ; 
 and now I believe,that there are at least twelve 
 newspapers in the State of Virginia advocating 
 these colonies coming into the State. The sa- 
 piacious statesman who is the Governor of the 
 Old Dominion gives us a general and most cor- 
 dial welcome. ^V^ell, the prospect is very good and 
 inviting; and if there is any dangerof a dissolution 
 of the Union — in fact, if there is any weak spot 
 in the Union, I think it would be a good thing to 
 patch it over with an additional layer of popula- 
 tion. [Applause.] There never would be any dis- 
 union, if we could only attend to it, and see 
 where the weak places are, and mend them in 
 time. 
 
 But there is another exception to the rule I 
 have laid down. Central America will prove 
 abundantly sufficient to carry emigration south- 
 ward, even across many parallels of latitude. 
 She offers the grand inducements of commerce 
 of a climate unsurpassed in salubrity, (in the 
 central and Pacific portions,) of a fertile soil, 
 which yields three crops a year, and, more thau 
 all, lauds so cheap that every man may buy. 
 We have already joegun to move, and what to 
 some men seemed to be the umbilical cord of 
 an embryo Southern Empire, is likely, hj these 
 means, to be cut oft', if it is not cut otf already. 
 [Laughter.] Everybody knows the physiologi- 
 cal consequences. 
 
 Well, sir, I wish now to say that there is a 
 higher power than man's in relation to this mat- 
 ter of Freedom in Kansas. It seemed at first to 
 the whole North that the project of establishing 
 Slavery there would exclude Freedom, and the 
 
 whole North was intimidated by it. There was 
 the greatest reluctance manifested to emigration 
 iu that direction, from the North. Everywhere 
 there was fear; everywhere despair. 
 
 '■Ti!^■re was s-jlence deep as death, 
 While we lloai^d on our patii; 
 And llie boldesi held his breaUi 
 ^or a lime." 
 
 Six months of persistent eftbrt in writing and 
 speaking were required to induce the first colony 
 of only thirty men to go to Kansas. The people 
 had become impressed with the idea that Kan- 
 sas was destined to be a slave State ; but as soon 
 as the first colonj' had reached that Territory, and 
 had founded the famous city of Lawrence, the 
 whole train of Northern emigration was turned 
 from Nebraska and from Minnesota to Kansas. 
 And they have filled Kansas with Free State 
 men — such men as are fitted for the high posi- 
 tion they occupy ; for Kansas is the geographi- 
 cal centre of our possessions. Its jtositiou in it- 
 self makes it the arbiter of our fate in all coming 
 time, destined to give law to all between the Mis- 
 souri river and the golden gates of the Pacific, 
 and to make its power felt all the way between 
 the British possessions and the Gulf of Mexico. 
 Never were more noble men needed for a more 
 noble work. It was necessary that Plymouth 
 Hock should repeat itself in Kansas. The Puri- 
 tan character was needed there ; but how could 
 it be had, except by such discipline as made the 
 Puritans ; for if it was necessary that they should 
 be elevated like the Pilgrim Fathers of New Eng- 
 land, it was also necessary that they should have 
 the training of the Pilgrim Fathers. They were 
 peculiar in their early history, and peculiar iu 
 their late history. They had their early educa- 
 tion among the rocks and mountains of New 
 England. I have known of great men iu times 
 past, who came from the forest, who came from 
 hills and mountains ; but I never have known 
 them to be raised on Wilton carpets. These men 
 received their early, training among the rugged 
 hills of New England, where they waged inces- 
 sant war on ice and granite, on snow and gravel- 
 Stones. It is there where they acquire their en- 
 ergy and their power. And, sir, I think the 
 Yankee race has at least an octave more com- 
 pass than any other nation on earth. I knotv a 
 Yankee doughface is half an octave meaner than 
 any other man. [Lai^hter.] 
 
 Sir, some of the best of this Yankee race went 
 to Kansas. They were stigmatized, six months 
 before they arrived there, as thieves and paupers. 
 Well, if such men as those who have built Law- 
 rence, and Topeka, and Manhattan, and Ossawat- 
 omie, and Quindaro, were thieves and paupers, 
 what do you think we respectable, well-to-do 
 people, Avill accomplish in the Old Dominion, 
 where we are now becoming acquainted with 
 sotne of the " first families ? " These Free State 
 men of Kansas have been reviled by their inferiors 
 at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue many times 
 during the last three years. The other day, in 
 the other end of this Capitol, such men were de- 
 nominated slaves. Sir, we are slaves ! I admit it ; 
 but our only master is the Great Jehovah. These 
 heroes in Kansas, having for their ancestors the 
 
Pilgrim Fathers, " sons of sires who baffled 
 crowned and mitred tyranny," disciplined in their 
 early years by the rugged teachings of adversi- 
 ty, seem to have been well prepared for their 
 high mission. 
 
 But the discipline of -worthy examples, of New 
 England education, and of poverty and adversi- 
 ty, were not enough. The discipline of t!/ranni/ 
 was requisite for their perfection. This disci- 
 pline has been of use in all ages of the world. 
 David was not lit to rule over Israel until he had 
 been hunted like a "partridge in the moun- 
 tains" by the envious and malignant Saul. Bru- 
 tus was w)t fitted to expel the Tarquins until 
 he had enured their tyranny for years. What 
 would M6ses have done, but for Pharaoh ? 
 A\^here would have been the Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century, where the Puritans in the 
 seventeenth, and the Patriots in the eighteenth, 
 but for Leo the Tenth, Charles the First, and 
 George the Third? But Charles the First lost 
 his head, and George the Third his colonies, for 
 less tyranny than has been practiced upon the 
 people of Kansas by the two successors of Mil- 
 lard Fillmore. If we thank God for patriots, we 
 should also thank Him for tyrants; for what great 
 
 achievements have patriots ever jnade, without 
 the stimulus of tyranny? Without vice, virtue 
 itself must be insij)id ; and without wicked and 
 mean men, there could be no heroes. 
 
 The brave man rejoices in the opposition of 
 the enemy of his rights. Wicked and mean mea 
 are the stepping-stones on which the good and 
 great ascend to heaven and immortal fame. 
 
 These miscreants, cursed both by God and 
 man, subserve important interests. The sacred 
 volume which unfolds to us the life and suffer- 
 ings of the Saviour of men, makes record also of 
 Pontius Pilate and of Judas Iscariot as necessary 
 agencies in that great redemption. 
 
 So I will denounce .no man who has fought 
 against Freedom in Kansas, as entirely useless 
 in the grand result. But what a team to draw 
 the chariot of Freedom! Atchison and String- 
 fellow and John Calhoun, with the two succes- 
 sors of Millard Fillmore to lift at the wheels. 
 
 [Here the tiammer fell.] 
 
 Note. — Mr. Thayer will complete the consider- 
 ation of this subject at the earliest convenient 
 time. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 BUELL & BLANC HARD, PRINTERS. 
 1858. 
 
011 895 892 5 #