It only remains for us to take it, promptly, patriotically.

The procrastination of this debate is of evil example.

How can we expect the alacrity of loyalty among the people, if the Senate hesitates?

The argument of the Senator is plausible, but it is answered by a simple statement of facts, in which, as presiding officer of the Senate, he bore a conspicuous part.

Such is a plain statement of facts, which I make in no spirit of personal criticism, but simply that you may see the occasion for the proposed rule.

Evidently something must be done to correct this incongruity, and to rehabilitate, if I may so say, the Act of Congress.

I am ready for any other proposition which will lift the statute from the desuetude and neglect into which it was allowed to fall, and will secure its enforcement.

In the events at hand this statute will be a safeguard of the Republic, and its enforcement here will secure its enforcement everywhere.

Born among slaves and living always under the shadow of Slavery, his character was not corrupted, nor was his judgment obscured.

All of us, although born among freemen, and living far away from that influence so unhappily disturbing our country, might take counsel from his intelligent alacrity.

While others surrendered to procrastination, he grappled at once with the giant evil.

Such a man was exceptional, and now that he is dead he deserves exceptional honors.

In this faith I turn in humble gratitude to God, as I behold my country at last redeemed and fixed in history, the Columbus of Nations, once in chains, now hailed as benefactor and discoverer, who gave a New Liberty to mankind.

Rejecting the palpable sophistries by which it was sought to postpone an act of unquestionable justice, and discarding the idea that wrong was to be dealt with tardily, gradually, or prospectively, he proposed Immediate Emancipation.

He died without beholding the fulfilment of his desires, but the cause with which his name is associated cannot die.

Among the human benefactors of Missouri, so rich in natural resources, he must always be numbered; and his memory will be appreciated there just in proportion as men discern what contributes most to the wealth, the character, and the true…

Hereafter, when the present conflict is ended and peace once more blesses our wide-spread land, he will be mentioned gratefully with those who saw truly how this blessing was to be secured, and bravely strove for it.

Better in that day to have been a doorkeeper in the house of Freedom than a dweller in the tents of the ungodly: and what ungodliness can compare with the ungodliness of Slavery, whether in the lash of the taskmaster or in the speech of…

The undersigned, women of the United States above the age of eighteen years, earnestly pray that your honorable body will pass, at the earliest practicable day, an act emancipating all persons of African descent held to involuntary service…

Here they are, a mighty army, one hundred thousand strong, without arms or banners, the advance-guard of a yet larger army.

Though memorable for numbers, these petitioners are more memorable for the prayer in which they unite.

They ask nothing less than Universal Emancipation; and this they ask directly at the hands of Congress.

But I need not remind the Senate that there is no reason so strong as the reason of the heart.

The petitioners know well that Congress is the depository of those supreme powers by which rebellion, alike in its root and distant offshoots, may be surely crushed, while unity and peace are permanently assured.

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