ble for this act and for every word which I utter.

With me, Sir, there is no alternative. Painfully convinced of the
unutterable wrong and woe of Slavery,--profoundly believing, that,
according to the true spirit of the Constitution and the sentiments of
the Fathers, it can find no place under our National Government,--that
it is in every respect sectional, and in no respect national,--that it
is always and everywhere creature and dependent of the States, and never
anywhere creature or dependent of the Nation,--and that the Nation can
never, by legislative or other act, impart to it any support, under the
Constitution of the United States,--with these convictions I could
not allow this session to reach its close without making or seizing an
opportunity to declare myself openly against the usurpation, injustice,
and cruelty of the late intolerable enactment for the recovery of
fugitive slaves. Full well I know, Sir, the difficulties of this
discussion, arising from prejudices of opinion and from adverse
conclusions strong and sincere as my own. Full well I know that I am
in a small minority, with few here to whom I can look for sympathy or
support. Full well I know that I must utter things unwelcome to many
in this body, which I cannot do without pain. Full well I know that the
institution of Slavery in our country, which I now proceed to consider,
is as sensitive as it is powerful, possessing a power to shake the whole
land, with a sensitiveness that shrinks and trembles at the touch. But
while these things may properly prompt me to caution and reserve, they
cannot change my duty, or my determination to perform it. For this I
willingly forget myself and all personal consequences. The favor and
good-will of my fellow-citizens, of my brethren of the Senate,
Sir, grateful to me as they justly are, I am ready, if required, to
sacrifice. Whatever I am or may be I freely offer to this cause.

Here allow, for one moment, a reference to myself and my position. Sir,
I have never been a politician. The slave of principles, I call no party
master. By sentiment, education, and conviction a friend of Human Rights
in their utmost expansion, I have ever most sincerely embraced the
Democratic Idea,--not, indeed, as represented or professed by any
party, but according to its real significance, as transfigured in the
Declaration of Independence and in the injunctions of Christianity. In
this idea I see no narrow advantage merely for ind