heir lips against
Slavery they would be condemned.

This single fact reveals the extent to which the National Government has
departed from its true course and its great examples. For myself, I know
no better aim under the Constitution than to bring the Government back
to the precise position on this question it occupied on the auspicious
morning of its first organization by Washington,

"Nunc retrorsum
Vela dare, atque iterare cursus
. . . . . . relictos,"

that the sentiments of the Fathers may again prevail with our rulers,
and the National Flag may nowhere shelter Slavery.

To such as count this aspiration unreasonable let me commend a renowned
and life-giving precedent of English history. As early as the days of
Queen Elizabeth, a courtier boasted that the air of England was too pure
for a slave to breathe, and the Common Law was said to forbid Slavery.
And yet, in the face of this vaunt, kindred to that of our fathers, and
so truly honorable, slaves were introduced from the West Indies.
The custom of Slavery gradually prevailed. Its positive legality was
affirmed, in professional opinions, by two eminent lawyers, Talbot and
Yorke, each afterwards Lord Chancellor. It was also affirmed on the
bench by the latter as Lord Hardwicke. England was already a Slave
State. The following advertisement, copied from a London newspaper, _The
Public Advertiser_, of November 22, 1769, shows that the journals there
were disfigured as some of ours, even in the District of Columbia.

"To be sold, a black girl, the property of J. B., eleven years of
age, who is extremely handy, works at her needle tolerably, and
speaks English perfectly well; is of an excellent temper and willing
disposition. Inquire of her owner at the Angel Inn, behind St. Clement's
Church, in the Strand."

At last, in 1772, only three years after this advertisement, the single
question of the legality of Slavery was presented to Lord Mansfield, on
a writ of _habeas corpus_. A poor negro, named Sommersett, brought to
England as a slave, became ill, and, with an inhumanity disgraceful even
to Slavery, was turned adrift upon the world. Through the charity of
an estimable man, the eminent Abolitionist, Granville Sharp, he was
restored to health, when his unfeeling and avaricious master again
claimed him as bondman. The claim was repelled. After elaborate and
protracted discussion in Westminster Hall, marked by rarest learning
and ability, Lord Ma