So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart.

Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel, While the same plumage that had warmed his nest Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.

That we may fully estimate this system of conduct in its enormity, we must call to mind the evils of Slavery, where it is allowed to exist.

And here language is inadequate to portray the infinite sum of wretchedness, degradation, injustice, legalized by this unholy relation.

For the mother there is no assurance that her infant will not be torn from her breast.

For all who bear the name of Slave there is nothing which they can call their own.

By his side is the master, who, in the debasing influences on his own soul, is compelled to share the degradation to which he dooms his fellow-men.

The whole social fabric is disorganized; labor loses its dignity; industry sickens; education finds no schools; religion finds no churches; and all the land of Slavery is impoverished.

Shall Slavery be extended?--Now, at last, the Slave Power threatens to carry Slavery into the vast regions of New Mexico and California, existing territories of the United States, already purged of this evil by express legislation of the…

It is the immediate urgency of this question that has aroused the country to the successive aggressions of the Slave Power, and to its undue influence over the National Government.

And the distinct question is presented, whether the National Government shall carry into this imperial region the curse of Slavery, with its monstrous brood of ignorance, poverty, and degradation, or Freedom, with her attendant train of…

After these things, to which many more might be added, it will not be denied, that, in order to secure Freedom in the Territories, there must be direct and early prohibition of Slavery by Act of Congress.

Not only from desire to bring the National Government back again to the spirit of the Fathers, but also from deep convictions of morals and religion, is our hostility to Slavery derived.

Slavery is wrong; nor can any human legislation elevate into any respectability the blasphemy of tyranny, that man can hold property in his fellow-man.

Slavery, we repeat, is wrong, and therefore we cannot sanction it.

Wherever we are responsible for Slavery, we oppose it.

But Slavery everywhere under the Constitution of the United States, everywhere under the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Government, everywhere under the national flag, is at our own particular doors.

The freemen of the North are responsible for it equally with the traffickers in flesh who haunt the shambles of the South.

Nor will this responsibility cease, so long as Slavery continues to exist in the District of Columbia, in any Territories of the United States, or anywhere on the high seas, beneath the protecting flag of the Republic.

The fetters of every slave within these jurisdictions are bound and clasped by the votes of Massachusetts.

Their chains, as they clank, seem to say, "Massachusetts does this outrage.

Divorce of the National Government from Slavery.--This must not be any longer.

Let the word go forth, that the National Government shall be divorced from all support of Slavery, and shall never hereafter sanction it.

The National Government must be on the side of Freedom.--Accomplishing these specific changes, a new tone will be given to the Republic.

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