It was hollow and false, and the best men in the party felt it.

The only enthusiasm of the campaign was in the new party, and it was perfectly spontaneous and fervid.

No sophistry could disguise this fact, nor could its significance be overstated.

I not only meant that they should not be ashamed of it, but that, if possible, it should stand the test of criticism, both as to matter and diction.

But as to slavery he seemed to have no conscience, regarding it as a matter of total moral indifference, and thus completely confounding the distinction between right and wrong.

Was some miracle to be wrought through which the slave-masters were to be transfigured into negro apostles and devotees?

If it had been morally possible, I would have supported him gladly.

They scourge the mining States and Territories with the unspeakable curse of uncertainty of land titles, as everywhere attested by incurable litigation and strife.

They thus undermine the morals of the people, and pave the way for violence and crime.

They cripple a great national industry and source of wealth, and insult the principles of American jurisprudence.

And the misfortune of this legislation is heightened by the probability of its continuance; for it is not easy to uproot a body of laws once accepted by a people, however mischievous in their character.

Custom, and the faculty of adaptation, have a very reconciling influence upon communities as well as individuals.

Moreover, men absorbed in a feverish and hazardous industry, and stimulated by the hope of sudden wealth, are not disposed to consider the advantages of permanent ownership and security of title.

It may thus happen that a system of laws initiated by itinerant miners solely for the protection of their transient posessory interests, and carried through Congress at their behest by parliamentary roguery, may be permanently engrafted…

The laws regulating the ownership and disposition of landed property not only affect the well-being but frequently the destiny of a people.

Such a state of affairs is worse than pestilence or famine; but the evil of uncertain titles puts on new and very aggravated forms in our gold-bearing regions.

Its prizes are often rich and suddenly gained, and when they are sought through the forms of a law which compels a man to choose between an expensive and hazardous litigation and robbery, human nature is severely tried.

No situation could well be more deplorable than that which obliges a man to pay heavy black- mail as the only means of saving his property from legal confiscation by another; and the moral ravages of a code which allows this can not be…

It tempts civilized men to become savages and savages to become devils.

It is not a mistake merely, but a great misfortune, that our laws touching so delicate and vital a question as the ownership and transfer of mineral lands were not so framed as to avert these frightful evils.

It was completely at war with the genius and spirit of democratic government.

It was a confession of Congressional incompetence to deal with a problem which Congress alone had the right to solve.

The feeling against him became perfectly relentless, as I distinctly remember it, and shared in it myself; but on referring to the message now, I am astonished at the comparative moderation of its tone, and the strength of its positions.

The times are bad, and want curing; They are getting past all enduring; Let us turn out Martin Van Buren, And put in old Tippecanoe.