sons, Washington and Jefferson, had as little respect for that maxim, partus sequitur ventrem, as for that other cognate dogma, "Kings are born to rule." I infer from our history, sir, that the men of that day were sincere men, earnest, honest men, that they meant what they said. From their declaration, "All men are born equally free," I infer, that, in their judgments, no man, by the law of his nature, was born to be a slave; and, therefore, he ought not by any other law to be born a slave. I think this maxim of kings being born to rule, and others being born only to serve, are both of the same family, and ought to have gone down to the same place whence I imagine they came, long ago, together. I do not think that your partus sequitur ventrem had much quarter shown it at Yorktown on a certain day you may remember. I think that when the lion of England crawled in the dust, beneath the talons of your eagles, and Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, that maxim, that a man is born to rule, went down, not to be seen among us again forever; and I think that partus sequitur ventrem, in the estimation of all sensible men, should have disappeared along with it. So the men of that day thought.

Mr. President, these men, when they spoke of slavery and its extension, did not get up some hybrid sort of "compromise," and consult some supreme court. They declared slavery an evil, a wrong, a prejudice to free colonies, a social mischief, and a political evil; and if these were denied, they replied, "These truths are self-evident." And from the judgments of men they appealed to no earthly court; they took an appeal "to the Supreme Judge of the World." When I am asked to extend to this new empire of ours, now in its infancy, an institution which they pronounced an evil to all communities; when I refuse to agree with some here whose judgments I revere, and whose motives I know to be pure, I can only say, I stand where our fathers stood of old, I am sustained in my position by the men who founded the first system of rational liberty on earth. With them by my side, I can afford to differ from those here whom I respect. With such authority for my conduct, I can cheerfully encounter the frowns of some, the scorn of all; I can turn to the fathers of such, and be comforted. They knew what was best for an infant people just struggling into existence. If their opinions are worth anything-if the opinions of the venerated men are to be considered as authority-I ask Southern gentlemen what they mean when they ask me to extend slavery to the distant shores of the Pacific ocean, and the slave trade between Maryland and Virginia and that almost unknown country?

I remember what was said by the Senator from Virginia the other day. It is a truth, that when the Constitution of the United States was made, South Carolina and Georgia refused to come into the Union unless

the slave trade should be continued for twenty years; and the North agreed that they would vote to continue the slave trade for twenty years; yes, voted that this new Republic should engage in piracy and murder at the will of two States! So the history reads; and the condition of the agreement was, that those two States should agree to some arrangement about navigation laws! I do not blame South Carolina. and Georgia for this transaction any more than I do those Northern States who shared in it. But suppose the question were now presented here by any one, whether we should adopt the foreign slave trade and continue it for twenty years, would not the whole land turn pale with horror, that, in the middle of the nineteenth century, a citizen of a free community, a Senator of the United States, should dare to propose the adoption of a system that has been denominated piracy and murder, and is by law punished by death all over Christendom? What did they do then? They had the power to prohibit it; but at the command of these two States, they allowed that to be introduced into the Constitution, to which much of slavery now existing in our land is clearly to be traced. For who can doubt that, but for that woful bargain, slavery would by this time have disappeared from all the States then in the Union, with one or two exceptions? The number of slaves in the United States at this period was about six hundred thousand; it is now three millions. And just as you extend the area of slavery, so you multiply the difficulties which lie in the way of its extermination. It had been infinitely better that day that South Carolina and Georgia had remained out of the Union for a while, rather than that the Constitution. should have been made to sanction the slave trade for twenty years. The dissolution of the old Confederation would have been nothing in comparison with that recognition of piracy and murder. I can conceive of nothing in the dark record of man's enormities, from the death of Abel down to this hour, so horrible as that of stealing people from their own home, and making them and their posterity slaves forever. It is a crime which we know has been visited with such signal punishment in the history of nations as to warrant the belief that Heaven itself had interfered to avenge the wrongs of earth.

I know that this is a peculiar institution; and I doubt not that in the hands of such gentlemen as talk about it here, it may be made very attractive. It may be a very agreeable sight to behold a large company of dependents, kindly treated by a benevolent master, and to trace the manifestations of gratitude which they exhibit. But in my eyes a much more grateful spectacle would be that of a patriarch in the same neighborhood, with his dependents all around him, invested with all the attri butes of freedom bestowed upon them by the common Father, in whose sight all are alike precious! It is, indeed, a "very peculiar" institution.

According to the account of the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Davis], this institution exhibits all that is most amiable and beautiful in our nature. That Senator drew a picture of an old, gray-headed negro woman, exhausting the kindness of her heart upon the white child she had nursed. This is true; and it shows the good master and the grateful servant. But, sir, all are not such as these. The Senator concealed the other side of the picture; and it was only revealed to us by the quick apprehension of the Senator from Florida [Mr. Westcott], who wanted the power to send a patrol all over the country to prevent the slaves from rising to upturn the order of society! I had almost believed, after hearing the beautiful, romantic, sentimental, narration of the Senator from Mississippi, that God had, indeed, as he said, made this people in Africa to come over here and wait upon us, till the Senator from Florida waked me up to a recollection of the old doctrines of Washington and Jefferson, by assuring us that wherever that patriarchal institution existed, a rigid police should be maintained in order to prevent the uprising of the slave. Sir, it is indeed a peculiar institution. I know many good men, who, as masters, honor human nature by the kindness, equity, and moderation of their rule and government of their slaves; but put a bad man, as sometimes happens, as often happens, in possession of uncontrolled dominion over another, black or white, and then wrongs follow that make angels weep. It is, sir, a troublesome institution; it requires too much law, too much force, to keep up social and domestic security; therefore I do not wish to extend it to these new and as yet feeble Territories.

I am called on to lay the foundations of society over a vast extent of country. If this work is done wisely now, ages unborn shall bless us, and we shall have done in our day what experience approved and duty demanded. If this work shall be carelessly or badly done, countless millions that shall inherit that vast region will hereafter remember our folly as their curse; our names and deeds, instead of praises, shall only call forth execration and reproach. In the conflict of present opinions, I have listened patiently to all. Finding myself opposed to some with whom I have rarely ever differed before, I have doubted myself, reexamined my conclusions, reconsidered all the arguments on either side, and I still am obliged to adhere to my first impressions, I may say my long-cherished opinions. If I part company with some here, whom I habitually respect, I still find with me the men of the past, whom the nations venerated. I stand upon the Ordinance of 1787. There the path is marked by the blood of the Revolution. I stand in company with the "men of '87," their locks wet with the mists of the Jordan over which they passed, their garments purple with the waters of the Red Sea through which they led us of old to this land of promise.

With them to point the way, however dark the present, Hope shines upon the future, and, discerning their footprints in my path, I shall tread it with unfaltering trust.

THE CITIZEN'S DUTY.

[From a Speech on Current Political Issues. Ironton, Ohio, 19 August, 1859.]

LET those gentlemen who consider themselves quite too respectable

and decent to mingle in our elections, remember that God Almighty will hold them responsible for the manner in which they discharge their duty as voters. That right and privilege is not given to them for their benefit, or to be used at their pleasure, but for my benefit, for your benefit, and for the benefit of the thirty millions of people in the United States. If one sees an unworthy man go to the polls and take possession of the Government, and he will not prevent it, if there be such a thing as future responsibility-as we all believe-that man will have something to answer for upon that final day when all of us must account for

our acts.

Do you suppose that the old men who published that Declaration of Independence, which gave birth to your national existence, for the maintenance of which they appealed to the God of nations, approve of this neglect? They felt their own weakness, they, acting upon the commonly accepted principles of human reason, felt that they would perish in the conflict into which they were then about to enter; and at last, as poor feeble man always does when he feels he has nothing to lean upon but his own arm, he goes to the Almighty for help in that hour of trouble. They appealed to Him, and He answered well in the day of their trial; and all the struggles they endured, all the blood they shed, all the pains and privations they suffered, were simply to end in just one thing-in communicating to every rational free man equal power to govern the nation. That office they communicated to you-the voting people of the country. Did they suppose-could they have believed that the people of this country, the respectable people of the land, would so scorn the great and priceless estate which they left them, as that they would not attend to appointing the agents to take care of it, but that some mercenary spirit was to take care of them.

Don't let us blame our Presidents so much! Don't let us anathematize the men we have elected to these offices of State, too much! Let us abuse the people who elected them. They are to blame for wrongs

done, if any have been done. If you elect a judge, and he does not attend at court, and if an innocent man is hung because he was not there to try him, what do you with him? You take him to Columbus and impeach him. He is removed from office, and the brand of disgrace and ignominy is placed upon his brow. But you can be absent from elections, and let unworthy men be elected to office. You don't like some party or other. The judge might say he did not like his associate; he did not like to sit near him-he had not a very sweet breath. I tell you, sirs, that is quite as valid as many of the excuses that men make for staying away from elections.

YOUR

Henry Ware, Jr.

BORN in Hingham, Mass., 1794. DIED at Framingham, Mass., 1843.

THE EXPRESSION OF THE INNER LIFE.

[On the Formation of the Christian Character. 1831.]

OUR outward life should be but the manifestation and expression of the temper which prevails within, the acting-out of the sentiments which abide there; so that all who see you may understand, without your saying it in words, how supreme with you is the authority of conscience, how reverent your attachment to truth, how sacred your adherence to duty; how full of good-will to men, and how devoutly submissive to God, the habitual tenor of your mind. Your spontaneous, unconstrained action, flowing without effort from your feelings, amid the events of every day, should be the unavoidable expression of a spirit imbued with high and heavenward desires; so, that, as in the case of the Apostles, those who saw them "took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus," it may in like manner be obvious that you have learned of that Holy Teacher. And this may be without any obtrusive display on your part, without asking for observation, without either saying or hinting, "Come, see my zeal for the Lord." The reign of a good principle in the soul carries its own evidence in the life, just as that of a good government is visible on the face of society. A man of a disinterested and pious mind bears the signature of it in his whole deportment. His Lord's mark is on his forehead. We may say of his inward principle, which an Apostle has called "Christ formed within us," as was said of Christ himself during his beneficent ministry;-It "cannot be hid." There is an atmosphere of excellence about such a