was for the natural and inherent rights of _man_ they contended. It
is a libel upon the Constitution to say that its object was not
liberty, but slavery, for millions of the human race.

The Senator, well fearing that all his eloquence and his arguments
thus far are but chaff, when weighed in the balance against truth and
justice, seems to find consolation in the idea, and says that which
opposes the ulterior object of abolitionists, is that the general
government has no power to act on the subject of slavery, and that the
Constitution or the Union would not last an hour if the power claimed
was exercised by Congress. It is slavery, then, and not liberty, that
makes us one people. To dissolve slavery, is to dissolve the Union.
Why require of us to support the Constitution by oath, if the
Constitution itself is subject to the power of slavery, and not the
moral power of the country? Change the form of the oath which you
administer to Senators on taking seats here, swear them to support
slavery, and according to the logic of the gentleman, the Constitution
and the Union will both be safe. We hear almost daily threats of
dissolving the Union, and from whence do they come? From citizens of
the free States? No! From the slave States only. Why wish to dissolve
it? The reason is plain, that a new government may be formed, by which
we, as a nation, may be made a slaveholding people. No impartial
observer of passing events, can, in my humble judgment, doubt the
truth of this. The Senator thinks the abolitionists in error, if they
wish the slaveholder to free his slave. He asks, why denounce him? I
cannot admit the truth of the question; but I might well ask the
gentleman, and the slaveholders generally, "why are you angry at me,
because I tell you the truth?" It is the light of truth which the
slaveholder cannot endure; a plain unvarnished tale of what slavery
is, he considers a libel upon himself. The fact is, the slaveholder
feels the leprosy of slavery upon him. He is anxious to hide the
odious disease from the public eye, and the ballot box and the right
of petition, when used against him, he feels as sharp reproof; and
being unwilling to renounce his errors, he tries to escape from their
consequences, by making the world believe that HE is the persecuted,
and not the persecutor. Slaveholders have said here, during this very
session, "the fact is, slavery will not bear examination." It is the
Senator who denounces abolition