, if we are true to ourselves, may never come. Do not mistake
that the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Therefore let the legions
of slavery use bullets; but let us wait patiently till November and fire
ballots at them in return; and by that peaceful policy I believe we shall
ultimately win. [Applause.]

It was by that policy that here in Illinois the early fathers fought the
good fight and gained the victory. In 1824 the free men of our State, led
by Governor Coles (who was a native of Maryland and President Madison's
private secretary), determined that those beautiful groves should never
re-echo the dirge of one who has no title to himself. By their resolute
determination, the winds that sweep across our broad prairies shall never
cool the parched brow, nor shall the unfettered streams that bring joy and
gladness to our free soil water the tired feet, of a slave; but so long as
those heavenly breezes and sparkling streams bless the land, or the groves
and their fragrance or memory remain, the humanity to which they minister
SHALL BE FOREVER FREE! [Great applause] Palmer, Yates, Williams, Browning,
and some more in this convention came from Kentucky to Illinois (instead
of going to Missouri), not only to better their conditions, but also to
get away from slavery. They have said so to me, and it is understood among
us Kentuckians that we don't like it one bit. Now, can we, mindful of the
blessings of liberty which the early men of Illinois left to us, refuse a
like privilege to the free men who seek to plant Freedom's banner on our
Western outposts? ["No!" "No!"] Should we not stand by our neighbors who
seek to better their conditions in Kansas and Nebraska? ["Yes!" "Yes!"]
Can we as Christian men, and strong and free ourselves, wield the sledge
or hold the iron which is to manacle anew an already oppressed race?
["No!" "No!"] "Woe unto them," it is written, "that decree unrighteous
decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed." Can we
afford to sin any more deeply against human liberty? ["No!" "No!"]

One great trouble in the matter is, that slavery is an insidious and
crafty power, and gains equally by open violence of the brutal as well as
by sly management of the peaceful. Even after the Ordinance of 1787, the
settlers in Indiana and Illinois (it was all one government then) tried to
get Congress to allow slavery temporarily, and petitions to that end were
sent from Kaskaskia, and General Harriso