of the Republic; we must reaffirm the
Declaration of Independence; we must make good in essence as well as in
form Madison's avowal that "the word slave ought not to appear in the
Constitution"; and we must even go further, and decree that only local
law, and not that time-honored instrument, shall shelter a slaveholder.
We must make this a land of liberty in fact, as it is in name. But in
seeking to attain these results, so indispensable if the liberty which
is our pride and boast shall endure, we will be loyal to the
Constitution and to the "flag of our Union," and no matter what our
grievance, even though Kansas shall come in as a slave State; and no
matter what theirs, even if we shall restore the compromise, we will say
to the Southern disunionists, We won't go out of the Union, and you
shan't!

But let us, meanwhile, appeal to the sense and patriotism of the people,
and not to their prejudices; let us spread the floods of enthusiasm here
aroused all over the vast prairies so suggestive of freedom. There is
both a power and a magic in popular opinion. To that let us now appeal;
and while, in all probability, no resort to force will be needed, our
moderation and forbearance will stand us in good stead when, if ever, we
must make an appeal to battle and to the God of hosts!

FOOTNOTE:

[56] From the celebrated "last speech," made at Bloomington, Ill., May
29, 1856.

SUBJUGATION OF THE FILIPINO[57]

GEORGE F. HOAR

The American people have got this one question to answer. They may
answer it now; they can take ten years, or twenty years, or a
generation, or a century to think of it. But it will not down. They must
answer it in the end: Can you lawfully buy with money or get by brute
force of arms the right to hold in subjugation an unwilling people and
to impose on them such constitution as you, and not they, think best for
them?

The question will be answered soberly and deliberately and quietly as
the American people are wont to answer great questions of duty. It will
be answered, not in any turbulent assembly, amid shouting and clapping
of hands and stamping of feet. It will be answered in the churches and
in the schools and in the colleges, it will be answered in fifteen
million American homes, and it will be answered as it has always been
answered. It will be answered right.

I have sometimes fancied that we might erect here in the capital of the
country a column to American liberty which alone