But a new question had arisen,--the great question of freedom or slavery in our recently acquired territories,--and this question I deemed, for the time being, to be, though not exclusive of others, yet paramount to them.
Mann identifies the pressing issue of freedom versus slavery in newly acquired territories as a critical concern of his time.
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These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
Men of Massachusetts! moral and religious men! lovers of freedom and of your country, were you prepared for this?
Better be debarred from the privilege of voting at all, than to be mocked with the form, while cheated of the substance.
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