[Sensation and confusion.]
Can any man doubt that, even in spite of the people's will, slavery will
triumph through violence, unless that will be made manifest and enforced?
Even Governor Reeder claimed at the outset that the contest in Kansas was
to be fair, but he got his eyes open at last; and I believe that, as a
result of this moral and physical violence, Kansas will soon apply for
admission as a slave State. And yet we can't mistake that the people
don't want it so, and that it is a land which is free both by natural and
political law. No law, is free law! Such is the understanding of all
Christendom. In the Somerset case, decided nearly a century ago, the
great Lord Mansfield held that slavery was of such a nature that it must
take its rise in positive (as distinguished from natural) law; and that
in no country or age could it be traced back to any other source. Will
some one please tell me where is the positive law that establishes
slavery in Kansas? [A voice: "The bogus laws."] Aye, the bogus laws! And,
on the same principle, a gang of Missouri horse-thieves could come into
Illinois and declare horse-stealing to be legal [Laughter], and it would
be just as legal as slavery is in Kansas.
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