They have said so to me,
and it is understood among us Kentuckians that we don't like it one bit.
Now, can we, mindful of the blessings of liberty which the early men of
Illinois left to us, refuse a like privilege to the free men who seek to
plant Freedom's banner on our Western outposts? ["No!" "No!"] Should we
not stand by our neighbors who seek to better their conditions in Kansas
and Nebraska? ["Yes!" "Yes!"] Can we as Christian men, and strong and
free ourselves, wield the sledge or hold the iron which is to manacle
anew an already oppressed race? ["No!" "No!"] "Woe unto them," it is
written, "that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousness
which they have prescribed." Can we afford to sin any more deeply against
human liberty? ["No!" "No!"]
One great trouble in the matter is, that slavery is an insidious and
crafty power, and gains equally by open violence of the brutal as well as
by sly management of the peaceful. Even after the Ordinance of 1787, the
settlers in Indiana and Illinois (it was all one government then) tried
to get Congress to allow slavery temporarily, and petitions to that end
were sent from Kaskaskia, and General Harrison, the Governor, urged it
from Vincennes, the capital.
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