Charles Sumner

But this is not true; for no less than three States, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida, being all Slave States, were admitted with a free population below this ratio.

But, in making this number the condition of the admission of Kansas, you set up an extraordinary standard.

The Senator from New York was right in rejecting all appeal to precedents as entirely irrelevant; for the power invoked is clear and express in the Constitution, which is above all precedent.

You cannot deny the power, without obliterating this clause.

The power of Congress to admit Kansas at once is explicit.

Kansas now presents herself for admission with a Constitution republican in form.

Rarely is any proposition presented so simple in character, so entirely practicable, so absolutely within your power, and promising at once such beneficent results.

If you madly persevere, Kansas will not be without her William Tell, who will refuse at all hazards to recognize the tyrannical edict; and this will be the beginning of civil war.

It can be defended only by those who defend the Crime.

It is a continuation of the Crime against Kansas, and as such deserves the same condemnation.

In characterizing this bill as the Remedy of Injustice and Civil War, I give it a plain, self-evident title.

The wolf which thrust itself into the harness of the horse it had devoured, and then whirled the sledge according to mere brutal bent, is recognized by this bill, and kept in its usurped place, when the safety of all requires that it…

You put the infant State, now preparing to take a place in our sisterhood, to suckle the wolf which you ought at once to kill.

You recognize and confirm the Usurpation which you ought to annul without delay.

I know that there is another deceptive clause which seems to throw certain safeguards around the election of delegates to the Convention, when that Convention shall be ordered by the Legislature; but out of this very clause do I draw…

While affecting to initiate honest proceedings for the formation of a State, they furnish to this Territory no redress for the Crime under which it suffers; nay, they recognize the very Usurpation in which the Crime ends, and proceed to…

Now, Sir, consider these words carefully, and you will see, that, however plausible and velvet-pawed they may seem, yet in reality they are most unjust and cruel.

Never was this efficient weapon more needed in just self-defence than now in Kansas; and at least one article in our National Constitution must be blotted out before the complete right to it can be in any way impeached.

The rifle has ever been the companion of the pioneer, and, under God, his tutelary protector against the red man and the beast of the forest.

The President of the United States is under the highest and most solemn obligations to interpose; and if I were to indicate the manner in which he should interpose in Kansas, I would point out the old Common Law process.

Next comes the Remedy of Folly, which, indeed, is also a Remedy of Tyranny; but its Folly is so surpassing as to eclipse even its Tyranny.

For myself, I will not consent to wad the national artillery with fresh appropriation bills, when its murderous hail is to be directed against the constitutional rights of my fellow-citizens.

Let his complicity with the Crime cease, and peace will be restored.

It is not money or troops that you need there, but simply the good-will of the President.

The Message, if not copied from the Speech of the King, has been fashioned on the same original block, and must be dismissed to the same limbo.