But these lofty and enduring satisfactions,--this pleasure,--it is no extravagance to say, this bliss of knowledge, both for parent and child, is withheld, cruelly, remorselessly withheld, from the slave.

We know all this; we see its imbruting consequences; and we are compelled to see them, because the government will uphold slavery here.

Wherever we go, wherever we are, the odious, abhorred concomitants of this institution are forced upon our observation, and become a perpetual bitterness in the cup of life.

The whole system, with all its adjuncts, is irreconcilably repugnant to our ideas of justice.

We believe it to be a denial of the rights of man; we believe it to be contrary to the law of God.

Now, in all sincerity, and in all kindness, I ask our southern brethren what there is to them so valuable and desirable in retaining slavery here, as to be a compensation for all the pain and evil which its existence inflicts upon the…

Surely its abandonment here would be a small thing to them, while its continuance is a great thing to us.

It is a great thing to us, because we are held responsible for it by the whole civilized world.

Congress, therefore, is responsible for its institutions, as a man is responsible for the condition of his house, and the customs of his family.

But it is wholly otherwise with regard to the institutions that prevail in this District; their honor, or their infamy, attaches to us.

We of the Northern States feel it at home; we are made to feel it still more deeply abroad.

Throughout every nation in Europe, it is the common language and the common sentiment, that an institution which exists in one half of the states of this Union is in flagrant contrast and contradiction to the theory of our government.

When we are reminded of this,--whether in a kindly and expostulatory manner by our friends, or in an offensive and taunting one by our enemies,--we of the north can say, at least, that we are not responsible for it.

But they still retort upon us, and say, There is one spot for which you are responsible,--the District of Columbia.

You could abolish slavery there if you would; you do not; and therefore the sin of its continuance is yours, as much as if it existed in New York or Massachusetts.

Now I ask southern gentlemen how it is consistent with magnanimity and honor, with a fraternal feeling towards the north, for them to force the odium of this inconsistency upon us?

Surely they gain no credit, no character by it; we lose both credit and character.

The existence of slavery here is no benefit to them; it is of unspeakable injury to us.

They say that if slavery in this District should be surrendered, it would only be giving the adversary a vantage ground, on which he could plant himself to attack slavery in the states.

On the same ground on which slavery in this District has been defended for the last fifty years, it can be defended for the next fifty, or the next five hundred years; it can be defended forever.

This idea of perpetual slavery in the very household of a republic of freemen is not to be tolerated, and cannot be tolerated.

In my conscientious opinion, slavery exists in this District only by original usurpation and subsequent acquiescence.

The first position I take is this: That slavery has no legal existence any where, unless by force of positive law.

The grand reason against slavery given by Lord Mansfield, in Somerset’s case, was, “that it is so intrinsically wrong that it is incapable of being introduced into any country, on any reasons moral or political, and can only stand on…

So far from facilitating the increase of individual or national wealth, slavery retards both.