It was said of certain Roman Emperors, who did infinite mischief in their beginnings and infinite good towards their end, that they should never have been born or never died; and I would apply the same to the official life of this Kansas…

Such is the broad statement, which, even if correct, furnishes no Apology for any proposed ratification of the Crime, but which is in reality untrue; and this I call the Apology of imbecility.

But no person of ordinary intelligence will pretend that American citizens in the Pacific have received wrongs from these cannibals comparable in atrocity to those suffered by American citizens in Kansas.

Thus, where the Slave Power is indifferent, the President will see that the laws are faithfully executed; but in other cases, where the interests of Slavery are at stake, he is controlled absolutely by this tyranny, ready at all times to…

Therefore it is that Kansas is left a prey to the Propagandists of Slavery, while the whole Treasury, the Army, and Navy of the United States are lavished to hunt a single slave through the streets of Boston.

The whole community was aroused, while Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall quaked with responsive indignation.

But during long months of menace suspended over the Free Soil of Kansas, breaking forth in successive invasions, the President folds his hands in complete listlessness, or, if he moves at all, it is only to encourage the robber…

And now the intelligence of the country is insulted by the Apology, that the President had no power to interfere.

Why, Sir, to make this confession is to confess our Government a practical failure, which I will never do,--except, indeed, as it is administered now.

No, Sir, the imbecility of the Chief Magistrate shall not be charged upon American Institutions.

Where there is a will, there is a way; and in his case, had the will existed, there would have been a way, easy and triumphant, to guard against the Crime we deplore.

In no case, where the laws of the United States are opposed, or their execution obstructed, is the President constrained to wait for the requisition of a Governor, or even the petition of a citizen.

True it is, that, when the laws of a State are obstructed, he can interfere only on the application of the Legislature of such State, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened; but when the National laws are obstructed…

It is his high duty, under his oath of office, to see that they are executed, and, if need be, by the National forces.

To assert ignorance of this obstruction--premeditated, long-continued, and stretching through months--attributes to him not merely imbecility, but idiocy.

The oaths and grandiose titles of the pretended Legion are all set forth, and this poor mummery of a secret society, which existed only on paper, is gravely introduced on this floor, in order to extenuate the Crime against Kansas.

I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a Free State, and whom I feel satisfied will exert his entire influence to bring about this result.

Kansas is to be made a Free State by an honorable movement which will not conflict with the laws and the Constitution.

Grant that the Legion was constituted, can you extract from it any Apology for the original Crime, or for its present ratification?

Secret societies, with extravagant oaths, are justly offensive; but who can find in this mistaken machinery any excuse for the denial of all rights to the people of Kansas?

The whole tale, with the mode of obtaining the copy of the Constitution, is at once cock-and-bull story and mare’s nest,--trivial as the former, absurd as the latter,--and to be dismissed, with the Apology founded upon it, to the derision…

It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the Apology infamous,--founded on false testimony against the Emigrant Aid Company, and assumptions of duty more false than the testimony.

Defying truth and mocking decency, this Apology excels all others in futility and audacity, while, from its utter hollowness, it proves the utter impotence of the conspirators to defend their Crime.

Falsehood, always infamous, in this case arouses unwonted scorn.

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