The battle of freedom is to be fought out on principle. Slavery is a
violation of the eternal right. We have temporized with it from the
necessities of our condition; but as sure as God reigns and school
children read, THAT BLACK FOUL LIE CAN NEVER BE CONSECRATED INTO GOD'S
HALLOWED TRUTH! [Immense applause lasting some time.]
One of our greatest difficulties is, that men who know that slavery is a
detestable crime and ruinous to the nation are compelled, by our peculiar
condition and other circumstances, to advocate it concretely, though
damning it in the raw. Henry Clay was a brilliant example of this
tendency; others of our purest statesmen are compelled to do so; and thus
slavery secures actual support from those who detest it at heart. Yet
Henry Clay perfected and forced through the compromise which secured to
slavery a great State as well as a political advantage. Not that he hated
slavery less, but that he loved the whole Union more. As long as slavery
profited by his great compromise, the hosts of proslavery could not
sufficiently cover him with praise; but now that this compromise stands
in their way--
"....they never mention him,
His name is never heard:
Their lips are now forbid to speak
That once familiar word.
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