I firmly believe that in the providence of God it has been decreed that one cup more should be put to our lips, and that it should not pass away until we had drained it to the dregs.

I rejoice that a man of your sympathies and sensibilities is not here to see the Court-House again in chains, and justice administered behind bayonets.

But what is the use of petition, or polished sentences and rounded periods, in a contest with the pirate honor of Slavery?

It is like an attempt to hew down a mountain of granite with a glass pick-axe.

I never attended a meeting that evinced a truer spirit or a greater amount of moral power.

Little or no effervescence on the surface, but a depth of feeling, a calmness of conviction, and an energy of purpose, from which, I am well satisfied, the whole country will hear in due time.

I think I am still true to my peace principles, but my heart is stirred to its lowest depths of indignation; and I say frankly to men who applaud what our forefathers did, that we have now even stronger reasons for resistance to the Slave…

To yourself, Chase, Giddings, Smith, Benton, and a few others, the great majority of our people look for protection against the machinations of politicians who would bring upon our country the contempt of the civilized world, and upon the…

The Nebraska Bill has passed, but it is a mistake to suppose that the propagandists of Slavery will stop here.

The calamities of war with Spain, incalculably disastrous to the commerce of New York and Boston, are all to be braved in order to appropriate slaveholding Cuba.

An intrigue is now pending to secure a foothold in Hayti; and even the distant valley of the Amazon is embraced in these gigantic schemes, by which the despotism of the Slave Power is to be established, while you and I, and all of us from…

For myself, I will not bow down; but, Gentlemen, you will understand that no individual can effectually oppose these schemes.

As all at the South, without distinction of party, unite for Slavery, so all at the North, without distinction of party, forgetting vain differences of Whig and Democrat, must unite for Freedom, and, rising in majority and might, take…

The only impediment, at this moment, is to be found in those blind or selfish politicians who perversely seek a triumph of mere party, instead of a triumph of Freedom.

Neither the Whig party nor the Democratic party, through its national organization dependent on slaveholding wings, is competent to the exigency.

For a poor triumph of party, the North yields, in advance, all that is dear to it, and, while vainly calling itself national, helps to instal the sectional power of Slavery in the National Government.

And yet I do not turn from it without expressing at least some confidence that men from the North, whether Whigs or Democrats, will neither be cajoled by any temptation nor driven by any lash from the support of those principles which are…

Now it is a fact too well known in the history of England, and of our own country, that these persons, while often justly distinguished by individual charities, have been lukewarm in opposition to Slavery.

President, this petition is interesting to me, first, as it asks a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act, and, secondly, as it comes from Massachusetts.

That repeal I shall be glad, at any time, now and hereafter, as in times past, to sustain by vote and argument; and I trust never to fail in any just regard for the sentiments or interests of Massachusetts.

It is true that I have not hesitated, here and elsewhere, to express my open, sincere, and unequivocal condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Act.

I have denounced it as at once a violation of the law of God, and of the Constitution of the United States; and I now repeat this denunciation.

Its violation of the Constitution is manifold; and here I repeat but what I have often said.

It commits the great question of human freedom,--than which none is more sacred in the law,--not to a solemn trial, but to summary proceedings.

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