, and reaffirm, if necessary, our devotion to the principles of
the Declaration of Independence, let our practical work here be limited
to the above. We know that there is not a perfect agreement of sentiment
here on the public questions which might be rightfully considered in
this convention, and that the indignation which we all must feel cannot
be helped; but all of us must give up something for the good of the
cause. There is one desire which is uppermost in the mind, one wish
common to us all--to which no dissent will be made; and I counsel you
earnestly to bury all resentment, to sink all personal feeling, make all
things work to a common purpose in which we are united and agreed about,
and which all present will agree is absolutely necessary--which _must_
be done by any rightful mode if there be such: _Slavery must be kept out
of Kansas_! [Applause.] The test--the pinch--is right there. If we lose
Kansas to freedom, an example will be set which will prove fatal to
freedom in the end. We, therefore, in the language of the _Bible_, must
"lay the axe to the root of the tree." Temporizing will not do longer;
now is the time for decision--for firm, persistent, resolute action.
[Applause.]

The Nebraska bill, or rather Nebraska law, is not one of wholesome
legislation, but was and is an act of legislative usurpation, whose
result, if not indeed intention, is to make slavery national; and unless
headed off in some effective way, we are in a fair way to see this land
of boasted freedom converted into a land of slavery in fact.
[Sensation.] Just open your two eyes, and see if this be not so. I need
do no more than state, to command universal approval, that almost the
entire North, as well as a large following in the border States, is
radically opposed to the planting of slavery in free territory. Probably
in a popular vote throughout the nation nine-tenths of the voters in the
free States, and at least one-half in the border States, if they could
express their sentiments freely, would vote NO on such an issue; and it
is safe to say that two-thirds of the votes of the entire nation would
be opposed to it. And yet, in spite of this overbalancing of sentiment
in this free country, we are in a fair way to see Kansas present itself
for admission as a slave State. Indeed, it is a felony, by the local law
of Kansas, to deny that slavery exists there even now. By every
principle of law, a negro in Kansas is free; yet the _bogus_