It has been the common practice for Southern men to get up on this floor, and say, 'Touch this subject, and we will dissolve this Union as a remedy.' Their remedy was the destruction of the thing which they wished to save, and any sensible man could see it.
Garrison critiques the Southern response to threats against slavery, highlighting their contradictory logic.
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With the North, the preservation of the Union is placed above all other things--above honour, justice, freedom, integrity of soul, the Decalogue and the Golden Rule--the Infinite God himself.
The more the South reflected, the more clearly she must see that she has a deep and vital interest in maintaining the Union.
Her devotion to it is the latest and the most terrible form of idolatry.
But how long it is to curse the earth, and desecrate his image, he alone foresees.