ower to purchase auxiliary support to the cause of
slavery even from the freemen of the North."

In closing this most illustrative address, he apologizes to his
constituents for any language he may have used in debate which might be
deemed harsh or acrimonious, and asks them to consider the adversaries
with whom he had to contend; the virulence and rancor, unparalleled in
the history of the country, with which he had been pursued; and to
remember that, "for the single offence of persisting to assert the right
of the people to petition, and the freedom of speech and of the press,
he had been twice dragged before the house to be censured and expelled."
One of his assailants, Thomas F. Marshall, had declared, in an address
to his constituents, his motives for the past, and his purposes for the
future, in the following words:

"Though petitions to dissolve the Union be poured in by thousands,
I shall not again interfere on the floor of Congress, since the
house have virtually declared that there is nothing contemptuous or
improper in offering them, and are willing again to afford Mr.
Adams an opportunity of sweeping all the strings of discord that
exist in our country. I acted as I thought for the best, being
sincerely desirous to check that man, who, if he could be removed
from the councils of the nation, or _silenced_ on the exasperating
subject to which he seems to have devoted himself, _none other, I
believe, could be found hardy enough, or bad enough, to fill his
place_."

"Besides this special and avowed malevolence against me," Mr. Adams
remarks,--"this admitted purpose to expel or silence me, for the sake
of brow-beating all other members of the free representation, by
establishing over them the reign of terror,--a peculiar system of
tactics in the house has been observed towards me, by _silencers_ of
the slave representation and their allies of the Northern Democracy."

The system of tactics to which he alludes was, first, to turn him out
of the office of chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and,
this failing, to induce a majority of the servile portion of that
committee to refuse any longer to serve with him; their purpose being
exactly that of Mr. Marshall, to remove him from the councils of the
nation, or to silence him, for the sake of _intimidating_ all others by
"an ostentatious display of a common determination not to serve with
any man who would not s