Ours, too, is the argument alike of the Conservative and the Reformer; for our cause stands on the truest conservatism and the truest reform.

It seeks the conservation of Freedom itself, and of kindred historic principles; it seeks also the reform of Slavery, and of the kindred tyranny by which it is upheld.

Even as on the broad shield of Achilles, sculptured by divine art, was wrought every form of human activity, so in this cause, which is the very shield of Freedom, whatever man can do by deed or speech will find its place.

Providence is felt through individuals; the dropping of water wears away the rock; and no man can be too humble or poor for this work, while to all the happy in genius, fortune, or fame it makes a special appeal.

And still one thing more is needed, without which Liberty-loving men, and their arguments, will fail in power,--even as without charity all graces of knowledge, speech, and faith are said to profit nothing.

I mean that Unity of Spirit--in itself a fountain of strength--which, filling the people of the North, shall make them tread under foot past antipathies, decayed dissensions, and those irritating names which now exist only as tattered…

It is right to be taught by the enemy; and with their example before us, and their power brandished in our very faces, we cannot hesitate.

Among us at last mutual criticism, crimination, and feud must give place to mutual sympathy, trust, and alliance.

From beginning to end, from side to side, and in every aspect, this transaction can be regarded only as a clear, indubitable, and utterly unmitigated outrage.

The new-fangled doctrine, that a slave-master can voluntarily import his alleged slave--of course with all the revolting incidents of Slavery--into the Free States, is not more odious than preposterous.

It is scouted by reason, and disowned by universal jurisprudence.

It was this knowledge which filled them with confidence to regain their God-given liberty.

It was perpetrated through perversion of the great writ of Habeas Corpus.

Strange and disgraceful as all this is, it must be considered the natural fruit of Slavery.

Any person, whosoever he may be, whether simple citizen or magistrate, who undertakes to uphold this wrong, seems forthwith to lose his reason.

He may be just, humane, and decent in other things, but in the support of Slavery he becomes unjust, inhuman, and indecent,--often in obvious unconsciousness of his degradation.

The blindness which makes him insensible to wrong so transcendent naturally makes him insensible to the lesser wrong by which it is maintained.

But there must be an end to these things; and as Shakespeare found a jewel in the toad’s head, so do I find a cheering omen even in the injustice which has made you its victim.

There is an old saying, handed down from distant antiquity, that “whoso the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”; and I have often of late been impressed by its truth.

The Slave Oligarchy is mad, and their overflowing madness runs through every agent and tool.

In all that they do--especially in the Fugitive Slave Bill and its cruel enforcement, the Nebraska Bill and its felonious administration, and now in the imprisonment of an unoffending citizen--I rejoice to believe that there is…

Verily the day is at hand when returning justice will once more bear sway; then, among the triumphs of Freedom, will be a reckoning with unjust judges.

It is a privilege to suffer for truth; and I envy not the meanness of that soul which would hesitate to prefer your place within the stone walls of a prison to the cushioned bench of the magistrate by whose irrational and tyrannical edict…

The Pen of the Author,--Exposing error, defending truth, instructing the ignorant, cheering the unhappy, while charming and animating all, it can do better than the Sword, and will yet receive from the world a higher praise.

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