it
against the lives of another." Thus far this great statesman and
philanthropist. Had his contemporaries been ruled by his opinions, the
country had now been at rest on this exciting topic. What
abolitionist, sir, has used stronger language against slavery than Mr.
Jefferson has done? "Cruel war against human nature," "violating its
most sacred rights," "piratical warfare," "opprobrium of infidel
powers," "a market where men should be bought and sold," "execrable
commerce," "assemblage of horrors," "crimes committed against the
liberty of the people," are the brands which Mr. Jefferson has burned
into the forehead of slavery and the slave trade. When, sir, have I,
or any other person opposed to slavery, spoken in stronger and more
opprobrious terms of slavery, than this? You have caused the bust of
this great man to be placed in the centre of your Capitol; in that
conspicuous part where every visitor must see it, with its hand
resting on the Declaration of Independence, engraved upon marble. Why
have you done this? Is it not mockery? Or is it to remind us
continually of the wickedness and danger of slavery? I never pass that
statue without new and increased veneration for the man it represents,
and increased repugnance and sorrow that he did not succeed in driving
slavery entirely from the country. Sir, if I am an abolitionist,
Jefferson made me so; and I only regret that the disciple should be so
far behind the master, both in doctrine and practice. But, sir, other
reasons and other causes have combined to fix and establish my
principles in this matter, never, I trust, to be shaken. A free State
was the place of my birth; a free Territory the theatre of my juvenile
actions. Ohio is my country, endeared to me by every fond
recollection. She gave me political existence, and taught me in her
political school; and I should be worse than an unnatural son did I
forget or disobey her precepts. In her Constitution it is declared,
"That all men are born equally free and independent," and "that there
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State,
otherwise than for the punishment of crimes." Shall I stand up for
slavery in any case, condemned as it is by such high authority as
this? No, never! But this is not all, Indiana, our younger Western
sister, endeared to us by every social and political tie, a State
formed in the same country as Ohio, from whose territory slavery was
forever excluded by the ordinance