]
It yields nothing itself; it keeps all it has, and gets all it can
besides. It really came dangerously near securing Illinois in 1824; it
did get Missouri in 1821. The first proposition was to admit what is now
Arkansas and Missouri as one slave State. But the territory was divided
and Arkansas came in, without serious question, as a slave State; and
afterwards Missouri, not, as a sort of equality, free, but also as a
slave State. Then we had Florida and Texas; and now Kansas is about to be
forced into the dismal procession. [Sensation.] And so it is wherever you
look. We have not forgotten--it is but six years since--how dangerously
near California came to being a slave State. Texas is a slave State, and
four other slave States may be carved from its vast domain. And yet, in
the year 1829, slavery was abolished throughout that vast region by a
royal decree of the then sovereign of Mexico. Will you please tell me by
what right slavery exists in Texas to-day? By the same right as, and no
higher or greater than, slavery is seeking dominion in Kansas: by
political force--peaceful, if that will suffice; by the torch (as in
Kansas) and the bludgeon (as in the Senate chamber), if required.
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