If that had succeeded, good-bye to liberty
here. But John Randolph of Virginia made a vigorous report against it;
and although they persevered so well as to get three favorable reports
for it, yet the United States Senate, with the aid of some slave States,
finally squelched if for good. [Applause.] And that is why this hall is
to-day a temple for free men instead of a negro livery-stable. [Great
applause and laughter.] Once let slavery get planted in a locality, by
ever so weak or doubtful a title, and in ever so small numbers, and it is
like the Canada thistle or Bermuda grass--you can't root it out. You
yourself may detest slavery; but your neighbor has five or six slaves,
and he is an excellent neighbor, or your son has married his daughter,
and they beg you to help save their property, and you vote against your
interests and principle to accommodate a neighbor, hoping that your vote
will be on the losing side. And others do the same; and in those ways
slavery gets a sure foothold. And when that is done the whole mighty
Union--the force of the nation--is committed to its support. And that
very process is working in Kansas to-day. And you must recollect that the
slave property is worth a billion of dollars; while free-State men must
work for sentiment alone.
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