eder. Less
than ten years after the annexation of Texas, it was discovered by
Southern men that there was a Territory west of Missouri, wherein the
peculiar institution of the South could be made profitable; but by a
solemn league and covenant this land had been, for more than a third of
a century, consecrated to freedom. This bond of national faith, this
pledge of national honor, stood in the road of their ambition.

But men whose lives are but a series violations of the dearest rights
that God has bestowed on man cannot be expected to be bound by pledges
of national faith and national honor. This time-honored compact was
annulled, the barrier between freedom and slavery broken down. The whole
country was astounded at the perfidy of the act.

But the climax was not reached. The Territory was overrun with
desperadoes; ruffians from adjoining States usurped the rights of actual
settlers, stuffed ballot-boxes with illegal votes, and elected members
of their own lawless bands to the Legislature, to enact laws by which
every friend of freedom might be driven from the country.

Innocent and unoffending men were murdered in cold blood, houses were
consumed with fire, hamlets laid in smoking ruins, homeless and
houseless innocents, women and tender children, were driven forth,
exposed to the winds and storms of heaven.

All these wrongs, all these outrages, all these crimes of blood and
deeds of horror, were committed to plant the accursed institution on the
soil that had been, by a great national act, dedicated to freedom. But
violence and arson, bloodshed and murder, failed. The black banner of
slavery is trailing in the dust. The stars and stripes wave triumphantly
over a free and joyous people. The heretofore invincible is conquered. I
have borrowed the word "aggression" to express the conduct of the South
toward the North. I do not intend to make the charge without the
specifications.

1. I charge upon slavery, that the enforcement of the Missouri
compromise was an aggression upon the North.

2. I charge the annexation of Texas, whereby the Mexican war was brought
upon the country, more than two hundred millions of money were spent,
and many thousand lives sacrificed, as an aggression.

3. I charge that the adoption of the fugitive slave law, with many of
its odious and obnoxious provisions, was an aggression upon the people
of the North.

4. I charge that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott
case