ery. So also it was wrong to close Kansas against this institution
by what was called the Missouri Compromise Line, agreed upon on the
admission of Missouri into the Union."

So these men reasoned, and they said: "Now we propose to go and take by
the strong hand those rights of which we have been wrongfully deprived
since the beginning of the American Government. A little severity now--a
resolute seizing on our rights now, in this golden opportunity--will be
worth more than the shedding of rivers of blood by and by. Therefore the
primary and rudimental legislation of this infant Territory will be
worth everything to us in the final settlement of this question. It is
certain that the law is against us; but the law itself is wrong, and has
been wrong from the beginning. The right that belongs to us is the
material and inalienable right of revolution."

We have no right to assume that a majority of the people of Missouri
held the sentiments we have here indicated: probably they did not. But
the dissent was generally unspoken. The men of this stamp commonly
adopted the policy of the man with whom I had just parted. But there was
dissent in some cases, bitter and vehement, followed sometimes by
bloodshed.

Before I had gone to Iowa, and while I yet lived in Ohio, I had visited
Kentucky. An Ohio colony had gone down into Kentucky and located in the
counties of Wayne and Pulaski, on the Cumberland River. A brother of
mine had gone with them, and I had made him a visit. I thought then, and
think now, that there is no region on which the sun shines, more
desirable to live in than the region of the Cumberland Mountains. At
Crab Orchard I found a man that was born in the State of New York. He
had been a soldier at Hull's surrender, at Detroit, in the war of 1812,
with Great Britain. From Detroit he had made his way into Kentucky, had
married a rich wife with many slaves, and had become a vehement partisan
for slavery. But because he was born in the same State with myself, and
because I could tell him much about that people that were once his
people, he was glad to have me stop with him. Being old and choleric, he
would go off into a fierce passion against the abolitionists. He would
say: "These men are thieves! Our niggers are our property, and they
steal our property. They might as well steal our horses." After awhile
he would begin to talk about his children. He would say: "These niggers
are ruining my children! My girls are g