It is my happiness to believe, and my hope to be able to show, that, according to the true spirit of the Constitution, and according to the sentiments of the Fathers, FREEDOM, and not Slavery, is NATIONAL, while SLAVERY, and not Freedom…

Wherever it floats, may it never fail to inspire the sentiments in which it had its origin!

But I confidently look to them for trumpet words which shall again rally the country against the sectionalism of Slavery.

At Worcester, in 1848, commenced the first strong movement, which, gaining new force at Buffalo, and sweeping the Free States, enrolled three hundred thousand electors in constitutional opposition to a hateful wrong.

Both the old parties, with apostasy greater than that which aroused our condemnation at that time, have trampled on the Declaration of Independence, and the most cherished sentiments of the Fathers of the Republic.

It is difficult to see how any person, loyal to Freedom, and desirous of guarding it by all constitutional means, can support the national candidates of either of these parties, without surrendering the cause he professes to have at heart.

Let no man expect from me any such surrender.

The two Conventions at Baltimore, by their recorded resolutions, have vied with each other in servility to Slavery.

But I rejoice to believe that in both parties there are large numbers of good men who will scorn these professions.

In spite of the clamors of partisans and the assumptions of the Slave Power, there is one principle which must soon prevail.

According to the true spirit of the Constitution and the sentiments of the Fathers, Freedom, and not Slavery, is national, while Slavery, and not Freedom, is sectional.

Though this proposition commends itself at once, and is sustained by the history of the Constitution, yet both the great parties, under the influence of the Slave Power, have reversed the true application of its terms.

A National Whig is simply a Slavery Whig, and a National Democrat is simply a Slavery Democrat, in contradistinction to all who regard Slavery as a sectional institution, within the exclusive control of the States, and with which the…

In upholding Freedom everywhere under the National Government, we oppose a pernicious sectionalism, which falsely calls itself national.

But our duties increase with the occasion; nor will the generous soul be deterred by the greatness of the peril.

Better be where Freedom is, though in a small minority or alone, than with Slavery, though surrounded by multitudes, whether Whigs or Democrats, contending merely for office and place.

Make such disposition of my resolution afterward as to you shall seem best; visit upon me any degree of criticism, censure, or displeasure; but do not refuse me a hearing.

Massachusetts has many arrows in her well-stocked quiver, but few could she so ill spare at this moment as the one now irrevocably sped.

The practice of the law, while sharpening the intellect, is too apt to cramp the faculties within the narrow limits of form, and to restrain the genial currents of the soul.

His conscience, pure as goodness, sustained him in every trial,--even that sharpest of all, the desertion of friends.

And yet, while earnest in his cause, his zeal was tempered beyond that of the common reformer.

He knew well the difference between the ideal and the actual, and sought, by practical means, in harmony with existing public sentiment, to promote the interests he fondly cherished.

He saw that reform does not prevail at once, in an hour, or in a day, but that it is the slow and certain result of constant labor, testimony, and faith.

Determined and tranquil in his own convictions, he had the grace to respect the convictions of others.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.