The Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories is assailed, as beyond the power of Congress, and an infringement of local sovereignty.

Indeed, the very bill now before us assumes a control of the Territory clearly inconsistent with those principles of sovereignty which are said to be violated by Congressional prohibition of Slavery.

Surely, if Congress may establish these provisions, without interference with the rights of territorial sovereignty, it is absurd to say that it may not also prohibit Slavery.

The conclusion, then, follows, that by this prohibition you propose to deprive the present Territory, as you have deprived other Territories,--ay, and States,--of an essential portion of its sovereignty.

That the taxing power is of vital importance; that it is essential to the existence of Government; that the relinquishment of such a power is never to be assumed.

Now I call upon Senators to remark, that this sacred right, reputed so essential to the very existence of Government, is abridged in the bill before us.

For myself, I do not doubt the power of Congress to fasten this restriction upon the Territory, and afterwards upon the State, as is always done; but I am at a loss to see on what grounds this restriction can be placed, which will not also…

The former is an unquestionable infringement of sovereignty, as declared by our Supreme Court, far more than can be asserted of the latter.

I am unwilling to admit, Sir, that the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories is in any just sense an infringement of local sovereignty.

Slavery is an infraction of the immutable Law of Nature, and as such cannot be considered a natural incident to any sovereignty, especially in a country which has solemnly declared, in its Declaration of Independence, the unalienable right…

Madison thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there can be property in men; and I rejoice to believe that no such idea can be found there.

When it is said, therefore, that every citizen may enter the national domain with his property, it does not follow, by any rule of logic or of law, that he may carry his slaves.

On the contrary, he can carry only that property which is admitted such by the universal Law of Nature, written by God's own finger on the heart of man.

It is now in your power to overturn it; you may remove the sacred landmark, and open the whole vast domain to Slavery.

But you cannot escape the judgment of the world, nor the doom of history.

By no rule of justice, and by no subtilty of political metaphysics, can the right to hold a fellow-man in bondage be regarded as essential to self-government.

In the name of Liberty you open the door to Slavery.

With professions of Equal Rights on the lips, you trample on the rights of Human Nature.

It can never rest secure on broken faith and injustice.

Amidst all seeming discouragements, the great omens are with us.

Art, literature, poetry, religion, everything which elevates man, all are on our side.

The plough, the steam-engine, the railroad, the telegraph, the book, every human improvement, every generous word anywhere, every true pulsation of every heart which is not a mere muscle and nothing else, gives new encouragement to the…

The movement against American Slavery, protected by the august names of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, can calmly await a similar judgment.

Not that I love the Union less, but Freedom more, do I now, in pleading this great cause, insist that Freedom, at all hazards, shall be preserved.

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