consider the questions
which threaten the Union, to discuss them freely and decide them
fairly.

Now, gentlemen, what do we ask of you? Do we ask any thing
unreasonable in the amendment which has been submitted? We simply ask
that you say to your people that we of the free States have no
purpose, and never had any purpose, to infringe the rights of the
slave States, or of any citizen of the slave States. And that our
devotion to the Government and the Constitution is not inferior to
that of any portion of the American people. By uniting with us in the
declaration we propose, you tell your people at home that no
considerable party, that no considerable number of persons, in the
free States, has any wish or purpose to interfere with slavery in the
States where it exists, or with any of your rights under the
Constitution. You can say this with absolute truth, and with entire
confidence. In all the action of the delegates who favor this
amendment, in all our private consultations, every heart has been
animated by a most anxious desire to maintain the Union and preserve
the harmony of the Republic. No word has been uttered indicating the
slightest wish to avoid any obligation of the Constitution, or to
deprive you of any right under it. All concur in desiring to give
effect to the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it. The
same sentiments animate the people of the free States. Congress has
declared, with the almost unanimous concurrence of the members from
the free States, against national interference with slavery in the
slave States. The Chicago Convention most emphatically asserted the
same doctrine. It has been reiterated over and over again by the
Legislatures of the free States, and by great and small conventions of
their people. Is it, then, too much to ask you to unite with us in a
declaration that all fears of aggression entertained by your people
are groundless? Such a declaration will go far to insure peace; why
not make it?

You profess to be satisfied with slavery, as it is and where it is.
You think the institution just and beneficial. The very able gentleman
from Virginia (Mr. SEDDON), who commands the respect of all by the
frankness and sincerity of his speech, has said that he believes
slavery to be the condition in which the African is to be educated up
to freedom. He does not believe in perpetual slavery. He believes the
time will come when the slave, through the beneficent influences of