Whatever I am or may be I freely offer to this cause.

The slave of principles, I call no party master.

In this idea I see no narrow advantage merely for individuals or classes, but the sovereignty of the people, and the greatest happiness of all secured by equal laws.

Amidst the vicissitudes of public affairs I shall hold fast always to this idea, and to any political party which truly embraces it.

In this spirit I have come here, and in this spirit I shall speak to-day.

Rejoicing in my independence, and claiming nothing from party ties, I throw myself upon the candor and magnanimity of the Senate.

I may speak strongly, for I shall speak openly and from the strength of my convictions.

Of them I do not speak; but without fear and without favor, as without impeachment of any person, I assail this wrong.

I plant myself on the ancient ways of the Republic, with its grandest names, its surest landmarks, and all its original altar-fires about me.

According to them, Sir, we may speak of everything except that alone which is most present in all our minds.

To this combined effort I might fitly reply, that, with flagrant inconsistency, it challenges the very discussion it pretends to forbid.

Slavery, which you profess to banish from public attention, openly by your invitation enters every political meeting and every political convention.

Nay, at this moment it stalks into this Senate, crying, like the daughters of the horseleech, "Give! give!

But no unanimity of politicians can uphold the baseless assumption, that a law, or any conglomerate of laws, under the name of Compromise, or howsoever called, is final.

Nothing can be plainer than this,--that by no parliamentary device or knot can any Legislature tie the hands of a succeeding Legislature, so as to prevent the full exercise of its constitutional powers.

Each Legislature, under a just sense of its responsibility, must judge for itself; and if it think proper, it may revise, or amend, or absolutely undo the work of any predecessor.

To make a law final, so as not to be reached by Congress, is, by mere legislation, to fasten a new provision on the Constitution.

The wise Fathers did not treat the country as a Chinese foot, never to grow after infancy; but, anticipating progress, they declared expressly that their great Act is not final.

The responsibility for the recent Slave Act, and for Slavery everywhere within the jurisdiction of Congress, necessarily involves the right to discuss them.

To sustain Slavery, it is now proposed to trample on free speech.

In any country this would be grievous; but here, where the Constitution expressly provides against abridging freedom of speech, it is a special outrage.

For myself, in no factious spirit, but solemnly and in loyalty to the Constitution, as a Senator of the United States, representing a free Commonwealth, I protest against this wrong.

On Slavery, as on every other subject, I claim the right to be heard.

With equal fervor they should be echoed now by every American not already a slave.

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