All hail, then, to Massachusetts! the just and generous Commonwealth in whose behalf I have the honor to speak.

Thus, Sir, does the venerable Senator err, when he presumes to vouch Massachusetts for Slavery, and to associate this odious institution with the names of her great patriots.

I have said, that, before the adoption of the Missouri Compromise, even the Northern States were not so very kind and philanthropic towards this race, which is now under the peculiar care of the Senator from Massachusetts, as he would…

This statute, which bears date 1788, anterior to the National Government, was applicable only to Africans or negroes not citizens of some one of the United States; and, according to contemporary evidence, it was intended to protect the…

But I do not vindicate the statute; I only explain it; and I add, that it has long since been banished from the statute-book.

The chief services of the Southern States, for which the venerable Senator now claims so much, it will be observed with a smile, were conjectural only.

Nothing could be stronger, although it is painful to think that it was true.

Did occasion require, I might go further, and minutely portray the imbecility of Southern States, and particularly of South Carolina, in the War of the Revolution, as compared with Northern States.

The succeeding year, the Governor of South Carolina, pressed by British forces, offered to stipulate the neutrality of his State during the war, leaving its permanent position to be decided at the peace: a premonitory symptom of the…

The three Southern States--animis opibusque parati, according to the vaunt of the Senator--had not a single battalion in the field.

During all this period the men of Massachusetts were serving their country, not at home, but away from their own borders: for, from the Declaration of Independence, Massachusetts never felt the pressure of a hostile foot.

Some thousands have fallen in this way in this quarter, and the evil rages with more violence than ever.

The country is almost laid waste, and the inhabitants plunder one another with little less than savage fury.

Here is South Carolina secretly disclosing her military weakness, and its ignoble occasion: thus repudiating in advance the vaunt of her Senator, who finds strength and gratulation in Slavery rather than in Freedom.

The hapless Africans, allured with hopes of freedom, forsook their owners, and repaired in great numbers to the royal army.

Not by Slavery, but in spite of Slavery, was Independence achieved.

It was the inspiration of Liberty Universal that conducted us through the Red Sea of the Revolution, as it had already given to the Declaration of Independence its mighty tone, resounding through the ages.

With imperious look, and in the style of Sir Forcible Feeble, that Senator undertakes to call in question my statement, that the Fugitive Slave Act denies the writ of Habeas Corpus; and in doing this, he assumes a superiority for himself…

And to his peremptory assertion, that the Fugitive Slave Act does not deny the Habeas Corpus, I oppose my assertion, peremptory as his own, that it does,--and there I leave that issue.

It is true, Sir, if anything but Slavery were in question, such an objection, if merely plausible, would be fatal; but it is not to be supposed that the partisans of an institution founded on denial of human rights can appreciate the…

Let him now show, if he can, from the records of the National Convention, one jot of evidence inclining to any such power.

Whatever its interpretation in other respects, the clause on which this bill purports to be founded gives no such power.

When the veteran Senator of Virginia has answered this objection, when he is able to find in the Constitution a power which is not to be found, and to make us see what is not to be seen, then let him answer another objection.

And, Sir, when the veteran Senator has found a power in the Constitution where none exists, and has set aside the right of Trial by Jury in a suit at Common Law, then let him answer yet another objection.

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