But however much you may argue
upon it, or smother it in soft phrase, slavery can only be maintained by
force--by violence. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was by
violence. It was a violation of both law and the sacred obligations of
honor, to overthrow and trample under foot a solemn compromise, obtained
by the fearful loss to freedom of one of the fairest of our Western
domains. Congress violated the will and confidence of its constituents in
voting for the bill; and while public sentiment, as shown by the
elections of 1854, demanded the restoration of this compromise, Congress
violated its trust by refusing simply because it had the force of numbers
to hold on to it. And murderous violence is being used now, in order to
force slavery on to Kansas; for it cannot be done in any other way.
[Sensation.]
The necessary result was to establish the rule of violence--force,
instead of the rule of law and reason; to perpetuate and spread slavery,
and in time to make it general. We see it at both ends of the line. In
Washington, on the very spot where the outrage was started, the fearless
Sumner is beaten to insensibility, and is now slowly dying; while
senators who claim to be gentlemen and Christians stood by, countenancing
the act, and even applauding it afterward in their places in the Senate.
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