be maintained only by a practical
subversion of all rights. It is, therefore, merely according to reason
that its partisans should uphold the Usurpation in Kansas.

To overthrow this Usurpation is now the special, importunate duty of
Congress, admitting of no hesitation or postponement. To this end it
must lift itself from the cabals of candidates, the machinations of
party, and the low level of vulgar strife. It must turn from that Slave
Oligarchy which now controls the Republic, and refuse to be its tool.
Let its power be stretched forth toward this distant Territory, not to
bind, but to unbind; not for the oppression of the weak, but for the
subversion of the tyrannical; not for the prop and maintenance of a
revolting Usurpation, but for the confirmation of Liberty.

"These are imperial arts and worthy thee!"

Let it now take its stand between the living and dead, and cause this
plague to be stayed. All this it can do; and if the interests of Slavery
did not oppose, all this it would do at once, in reverent regard for
justice, law, and order, driving away all the alarms of war; nor would
it dare to brave the shame and punishment of this great refusal. But the
slave power dares anything; and it can be conquered only by the united
masses of the people. From Congress to the People I appeal. * * *

The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, has reached us, will soon be
transferred from Congress to a broader stage, where every citizen will
be not only spectator, but actor; and to their judgment I confidently
appeal. To the People, now on the eve of exercising the electoral
franchise, in choosing a Chief Magistrate of the Republic, I appeal, to
vindicate the electoral franchise in Kansas. Let the ballot-box of
the Union, with multitudinous might, protect the ballot-box in that
Territory. Let the voters everywhere, while rejoicing in their own
rights, help to guard the equal rights of distant fellow-citizens; that
the shrines of popular institutions, now desecrated, may be sanctified
anew; that the ballot-box, now plundered, may be restored; and that the
cry, "I am an American citizen," may not be sent forth in vain against
outrage of every kind. In just regard for free labor in that Territory,
which it is sought to blast by unwelcome association with slave labor;
in Christian sympathy with the slave, whom it is proposed to task
and sell there; in stern condemnation of the crime which has been
consummated on that beau