no interest in
the soil, and care not how much it is impoverished."

Mr. Berry, of Virginia, spoke thus:

"I believe that no cancer on the physical body was ever more certain,
steady, and fatal, in its progress, than is the cancer of slavery on the
political body of the State of Virginia. It is eating into her very
vitals."

The records of Southern statesmanship, sir, abound in such and stronger
expressions. Slavery had then existed in this country more than two
hundred years, yet scarce a man could be then found so bold and so
reckless as to proclaim it just and righteous, a humane, a Christian
institution. Nearly the whole civilized world united in its
condemnation; the ministers of our holy religion in the slave States
declaimed against it; their solemn petitions ascended to the throne of
God, that the country might be rid of these "bonds." But, slave labor
has become profitable in some parts of the South; the _mania_ for wealth
has seized the slaveholder's avarice, has dried up the fountain of
humanity. The lust of power and dominion deadens their consciences; a
million bales of cotton can blind their eyes alike to the flames of
perdition and the glories of Paradise. They make to themselves friends
of the Mammon of unrighteousness; they become full, and deny their
Maker, and say, who is the Lord! Concerning oppression, they speak
loftily. But they are set in slippery places; they will be cast down
unto destruction.

The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. LAMAR] said, a few days since:

"I tell you, Mr. Chairman, that God's sun does not shine upon a nobler,
prouder, more prosperous, and elevated class of people, than the
non-slaveholders of the South."

This, I think, will be news to many non-slaveholders in the gentleman's
district. Thomas Jefferson tells us that man is an imitative animal;
therefore, if the assertion of the gentleman from Mississippi be
correct, we must wonder why slaveholders do not relieve themselves of
their negroes, that they may become equally noble, proud, prosperous,
and elevated, with the non-slaveholder. Who can compare with them on
this side of Paradise? With them, the millennium can be no object of
desire, since

"Not a wave of trouble rolls
Across their peaceful breasts."

Still there must be some malice in their hearts, for the honorable
gentleman states that they (the non-slaveholders) hold slavery in the
hollow of their hands; surely, were they benevolent, they would