5. Step by step they have built up a party upon an issue which has led to a dissolution of the Union. They have scattered the seeds of abolitionism until a majority of the voters of the free States have become animated by a fixed purpose not only to prevent the further growth of the slave power, but to beard the lion in his den.
The power of the North has been consolidated, and for the first time in the history of the country it is wielded as a sectional weapon against the interests of the South. The government is now in the hands of men elected by Northern votes, who regard slavery as a curse and a crime, and they will have the means necessary to accomplish their purpose.
The utterances that have heretofore come from the rostrum or from irresponsible associations of individuals now come from the throne. “Clad with the sanctities of office, with the anointing oil poured upon the monarch’s head, the decree has gone forth that the institution of Southern slavery shall be constrained within assigned limits. Though Nature and Providence should send forth its branches like the banyan tree to take root in congenial soil, here is a power superior to both, that says it shall wither and die within its own charmed circle.”
If this be not believed, let the following selections from the speeches of the leaders of the Republican party be the proof:—
Hon. Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Mass.:—
“This slave oligarchy will soon cease to exist as a political combination. Its final doom may be postponed, but it is certain. Languishing, it may live yet longer, but it will surely die. Yes, fellow-citizens, surely it will die—when disappointed in its purposes—driven back within the States, and constrained within these limits, it can no longer rule the Republic as a plantation of slaves at home; can no longer menace Territories with its five-headed device to compel labor without wages; can no longer fasten upon the constitution an interpretation which makes merchandise of men, and gives a disgraceful immunity to the brokers of human flesh, and the butchers of human hearts; and when it can no longer grind flesh and blood, groans and sighs, the tears of mothers and the cries of children into the cement of a barbarous political power! Surely, then, in its retreat, smarting under the indignation of an aroused people, and the concurring judgment of the civilized world it must die;—it may be, as a poisoned rat dies, of rage in its hole. (Enthusiastic applause.) Meanwhile all good omens are ours. The work cannot stop. Quickened by the triumph, now at hand,—with a Republican President in power, State after State, quitting the condition of a territory, and spurning slavery, will be welcomed into our plural unit, and joining hands together, will become a belt of fire about the slave States, in which slavery must die.”
Hon. John Wentworth, Editor of the Chicago Democrat, and Mayor of Chicago:—
“We might as well make up our minds to fight the battle now, as at any other time. It will have to be fought, and the longer the evil day is put off, the more bloody will be the contest when it comes. If we do not place slavery in the process of extinction now, by hemming it in, where it is, and not suffering it to expand, it will extinguish us, and our liberties.
“If the Union be preserved, and if the Federal government be administered for a few years by Republican Presidents, a scheme may be devised, and carried out, which will result in the peaceful, honorable and equitable EMANCIPATION of ALL the SLAVES.
“The States must be made ALL FREE, and if a Republican government is intrusted with the duty of making them FREE, the work will be done without bloodshed, without revolution, without disastrous loss of property. The work will be one of time and patience, but it MUST BE DONE!”