d destroy the millions of hapless wretches already within
your grasp. If you will no longer agitate the subject, we will not."
There is no sense, no principle, no force in such an issue. Not a
solitary slaveholder will I allow to enjoy repose on any other
condition than instantly ceasing to be one. Not a single slave will I
leave in his chains, on any conditions, or under any circumstances. I
will not try to make as good a bargain for the Lord as the Devil will
let me, and plead the necessity of a compromise, and regret that I
cannot do any better, and be thankful that I can do so much. The
Scriptural injunction is to be obeyed: "Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you." My motto is, "No union with slaveholders, religiously
or politically." Their motto is "Slavery forever! No alliance with
Abolitionists, either in Church or State!" The issue is clear,
explicit, determinate. The parties understand each other, and are
drawn in battle array. They can never be reconciled--never walk
together--never consent to a truce--never deal in honeyed
phrases--never worship at the same altar--never acknowledge the same
God. Between them there is an impassable gulf. In manners, in morals,
in philosophy, in religion, in ideas of justice, in notions of law, in
theories of government, in valuations or men, they are totally
dissimilar.

I would to God that we might be, what we have never been--a united
people; but God renders this possible only by "proclaiming liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." By what
miracle can Freedom and Slavery be made amicably to strike hands? How
can they administer the same Government, or legislate for the same
interests? How can they receive the same baptism, be admitted to the
same communion-table, believe in the same Gospel, and obtain the same
heavenly inheritance? "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye." Certain
propositions have long since been ceded to be plain, beyond
contradiction. The apostolic inquiry has been regarded as equally
admonitory and pertinent: "What concord hath Christ with Belial? or
what fellowship hath light with darkness?" Fire and gunpowder, oil and
water, cannot coalesce; but, assuredly, these are not more
antagonistical than are the elements of Freedom and Slavery. The
present American Union, therefore, is only one in form, not in
reality. It is, and it always has been, the absolute supremacy of the
Slave Power over the whole country--nothing more. Wh