Yes, you may speak of Slavery, if you will defend it; you may preach about it, if you shingle its roof with Scripture texts; but you may not talk, nor preach, nor print abolition doctrines, though you believe them with the intensity of inspiration!
He highlights the hypocrisy of justifying slavery while silencing abolitionist views, showcasing the moral conflict of the time.
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If the South shall give to the country a policy derived from her heathen notions of men, there will be such a peace as men have overdrugged with opium, that deep lethargy just before the mortal convulsions and death!
And if by an insane blindness you shall contrive to put off the issue, and send this unsettled dispute down to your children, it will go down, gathering volume and strength at every step, to waste and desolate their heritage.
Let us give sap to the tree of Liberty, that it may not wither and die!
All attempts at evasion, at adjourning, at concealing and compromising are in vain.