e arguments
on the other side; but it is not, as I think, the more imposing on that
account, or the less liable to the criticism which I have here bestowed
upon it.

* * * * *

But let us proceed to take a rapid glance at the reasons which have been
assigned for this notion that involuntary servitude and a republican
form of government are perfect antipathies. The gentleman from New
Hampshire has defined a republican government to be that in which all
the men participate in its power and privileges; from whence it follows
that where there are slaves, it can have no existence. A definition is
no proof, however, and even if it be dignified (as I think it was) with
the name of a maxim, the matter is not much mended. It is Lord Bacon
who says "That nothing is so easily made as a maxim"; and certainly a
definition is manufactured with equal facility. A political maxim is
the work of induction, and cannot stand against experience, or stand on
anything but experience. But this maxim, or definition, or whatever else
it may be, sets facts at defiance. If you go back to antiquity, you will
obtain no countenance for this hypothesis; and if you look at home you
will gain still less. I have read that Sparta, and Rome, and Athens, and
many others of the ancient family, were republics. They were so in form
undoubtedly--the last approaching nearer to a perfect democracy than any
other government which has yet been known in the world. Judging of
them also by their fruits, they were of the highest order of republics.
Sparta could scarcely be any other than a republic, when a Spartan
matron could say to her son just marching to battle, "Return victorious,
or return no more."

It was the unconquerable spirit of liberty, nurtured by republican
habits and institutions, that illustrated the pass of Thermopylae. Yet
slavery was not only tolerated in Sparta, but was established by one
of the fundamental laws of Lycurgus, having for its object the
encouragement of that very spirit. Attica was full of slaves--yet the
love of liberty was its characteristic. What else was it that foiled the
whole power of Persia at Marathon and Salamis? What other soil than that
which the genial sun of republican freedom illuminated and warmed,
could have produced such men as Leonidas and Miltiades, Themistocles and
Epaminondas? Of Rome it would be superfluous to speak at large. It is
sufficient to name the mighty mistress of the world, befo