No good citizen who makes himself acquainted with Slavery can hesitate to join against it.

Listening to his voice, now so gentle and low, while he conversed on the duties of life, and with perfect simplicity revealed his own abnegation of worldly aims, I have been filled with reverence.

He had thought for himself, and expressed what he said with all his native force refined by new-born sweetness of soul, which would have commended sentiments even of less intrinsic interest.

I saw how, in the purity of his nature, he turned aside from riches and from ambition of all kinds, content with a tranquil existence, undisturbed by any of those temptations which promised once to exercise such sway over him.

His firm renunciation of office, opening the way to a tempting political career, when formally tendered to him, is almost unique.

I disconnect myself from party,” he said, “whose iron grasp holds hard even upon the least of us, and mean in my little sphere, as a private individual, to serve what seems to me the cause of the country and humanity.

In this spirit, and with his unquestionable abilities, he might well have acted an important part in the growing conflict with Slavery.

Nor can I disguise the satisfaction which I find at being here in Worcester,--early and constant home of the Republican cause.

But though truly belonging to Worcester on this account, I have always been glad to believe that it only justly depicted her as the “heart” of our cause,--here at least in Massachusetts.

If this cause were of common political interest, if it turned only on some question of mere policy, or if it involved simply the honors and emoluments of office, I should willingly leave the contest to others.

Seeking, therefore, by active measures,--I say active and immediate measures,--to save the Territories, you seek also to save the whole country, not only from a deadly influence, but also from a degrading rule, which ostracizes from office…

Strange that it is not recognized at once by every patriot heart!

Strange that we should be compelled to vindicate it, sometimes against open foes, and sometimes--harder still--against others who betray it with a kiss!

In the coming election this cause has its representative in Abraham Lincoln.

It is for the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories that he has labored, and, excepting his brief, but honorable, experience in Congress, his public life may be summed up in this single service,--nor more nor less.

No person in the Republican party can think of coalition or fusion with either of these three parties; for they each and all represent in some form resistance to the Prohibition of Slavery, and therefore must be opposed, each and all.

In speaking of the Breckinridge party, I confess myself at the outset perplexed between abhorrence of its dogma and respect for its frankness.

Calhoun, is unequivocally promulgated, that under the Constitution the master may at all times carry his slaves into the Territories, and neither Congress nor Territorial Legislature can prohibit the outrage.

There is something even in criminal boldness which we are disposed to admire.

We like an open foe, who scorns to hide in deceit, and meets us in daylight.

But we do not like a foe who dodges and hides so that we cannot find him.

Nor do we like a man who gives us only something counterfeit in exchange for our votes.

We do not like the double-faced prevaricator, who cozens both sides, and deals in words “that palter in a double sense.” It is praise to be frank, even on a bad side; and I have no reason to question this merit of the Breckinridge party.

And yet this very frankness reveals an insensibility to reason and humanity, which, when recognized, must add to our abhorrence.

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