The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery: What it was, what it has done,
what it intends to do, by Cydnor Bailey Tompkins

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Slavery: What it was, what it has done, what it intends to do
Speech of Hon. Cydnor B. Tompkins, of Ohio

Author: Cydnor Bailey Tompkins

Release Date: January 10, 2009 [EBook #27767]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY: WHAT IT WAS; HAS DONE ***

Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

SLAVERY: WHAT IT WAS, WHAT IT HAS DONE, WHAT
IT INTENDS TO DO.

SPEECH
OF
HON. CYDNOR B. TOMPKINS, OF OHIO.

Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 24, 1860.

Mr. TOMPKINS said:

Mr. CHAIRMAN: The charge is frequently made, that nothing but slavery
occupies the attention of the National Legislature. That this charge is
true to a great extent, that this subject is constantly kept before the
country, and that there is constant excitement about it, is not the
fault of the Republican party. In the first hour of the present session
of Congress, it was thrust upon the House by a member of the slavery
party; for two months a discussion was continued upon that subject, and
almost exclusively by that party--a discussion unparalleled in point of
violence and virulence in the history of Parliamentary debate. Charges
the most aggravated were unscrupulously and shamelessly made against the
best and purest men of the country, and honorable members on this floor.
Calumny and vituperation held high carnival in the legislative halls of
this great nation. The columns of the _Daily Globe_ teemed with fierce
and fiery denunciations of all who would not bow to the behests of
pro-slavery power. Depraved, corrupt, and polluted presses exerted
themselves to the utmost in the work of slander and detraction; hireling
scribblers for worse than hireling presses glutted themselves and _made
the