ld have when opportunity shall come.

For, whether we will or not, the question of slavery is the question, the
all-absorbing topic of the day. It is true that all of us--and by that I
mean, not the Republican party alone, but the whole American people, here
and elsewhere--all of us wish this question settled, wish it out of the
way. It stands in the way, and prevents the adjustment, and the giving
of necessary attention to other questions of national house-keeping. The
people of the whole nation agree that this question ought to be settled,
and yet it is not settled. And the reason is that they are not yet agreed
how it shall be settled. All wish it done, but some wish one way and
some another, and some a third, or fourth, or fifth; different bodies
are pulling in different directions, and none of them, having a decided
majority, are able to accomplish the common object.

In the beginning of the year 1854, a new policy was inaugurated with the
avowed object and confident promise that it would entirely and forever
put an end to the slavery agitation. It was again and again declared that
under this policy, when once successfully established, the country would
be forever rid of this whole question. Yet under the operation of that
policy this agitation has not only not ceased, but it has been constantly
augmented. And this too, although, from the day of its introduction, its
friends, who promised that it would wholly end all agitation, constantly
insisted, down to the time that the Lecompton Bill was introduced, that it
was working admirably, and that its inevitable tendency was to remove the
question forever from the politics of the country. Can you call to mind
any Democratic speech, made after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
down to the time of the Lecompton Bill, in which it was not predicted that
the slavery agitation was just at an end, that "the abolition excitement
was played out," "the Kansas question was dead," "they have made the most
they can out of this question and it is now forever settled"? But since
the Lecompton Bill no Democrat, within my experience, has ever pretended
that he could see the end. That cry has been dropped. They themselves do
not pretend, now, that the agitation of this subject has come to an end
yet.

The truth is that this question is one of national importance, and we
cannot help dealing with it; we must do something about it, whether
we will or not. We cannot avoid it; the subj