Especially must it turn from that Slave Oligarchy now controlling the Republic, and refuse to be its tool.

Let its power be stretched forth into this distant Territory, not to bind, but to release,--not for oppression of the weak, but for subversion of the tyrannical,--not for prop and maintenance of revolting Usurpation, but for confirmation…

Let it now take stand between the living and dead, and cause this plague to be stayed.

Already Public Opinion gathers unwonted forces to scourge the aggressors.

In the press, in daily conversation, wherever two or three are gathered together, there the indignant utterance finds vent.

Business is now turning from the Assassins and Thugs that infest the Missouri River, to seek some safer avenue.

The political credit of the men who uphold the Usurpation droops even more than the stocks; and the People are turning from all those through whom the Assassins and Thugs derive their disgraceful immunity.

Thus the contest which she begins involves Liberty not only for herself, but for the whole country.

Far away on the prairies, she is now battling for the Liberty of all, against the President, who misrepresents all.

Above all towers the majestic form of Washington, once more, as on the bloody field, bidding them remember those rights of Human Nature for which the War of Independence was waged.

The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, reaches us will be transferred soon from Congress to that broader stage, where every citizen is not only spectator, but actor; and to their judgment I confidently turn.

Let the ballot-box of the Union, with multitudinous might, protect the ballot-box in that Territory.

He has crowned the outrage of this debate by venturing to rise here and calumniate me.

To that statement I give, to his face, the flattest denial.

You will observe that the inquiry of the Senator was, whether I would join in returning my fellow-man to slavery?

No, Sir, I do not believe that there is any ‘kennel of bloodhounds,’ or even any ‘dog,’ in the Constitution.

Since I have been charged with openly declaring a purpose to violate the Constitution, and to break the oath which I have taken at that desk, I shall be pardoned for showing simply how a few plain words will put all this down.

President, I did not swear to support it as you understand it,--oh, no, Sir!--or as the Senator from Virginia understands it,--by no means!--or as the Senator from South Carolina understands it, with a kennel of bloodhounds, or at least a…

I desire to say, that, as I understand the Constitution, this clause does not impose upon me, as Senator or citizen, any obligation to take part, directly or indirectly, in the surrender of a fugitive slave.

Let the Senator bear these things in mind, and remember hereafter that the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not proper emblems of senatorial debate.

Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and the ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body.

The Senator infused into his speech the venom sweltering for months,--ay, for years; and he has alleged matters entirely without foundation, in order to heap upon me some personal obloquy.

That Senator said nothing of argument, and therefore there is nothing of that to be answered.

I simply say to him that hard words are not argument, frowns are not reasons, nor do scowls belong to the proper arsenal of parliamentary debate.

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