Indeed, the whole argument of the commissioner on this point is but a play upon words.

The premises he starts with are unknown to the constitution, and the conclusion he comes to is abhorrent to humanity.

Besides the inhumanity of this position, it contains a fallacy which is twin-brother to the one just considered.

The whole argument of the commissioner, that this act of his is not final, is founded on a quibble,--on the use of the legal word “final,” as though it were synonymous with the popular word eternal or perpetual.

But in a technical and juridical sense the decision of the commissioner is final; and he might as well doom a man to be hurled from the Tarpeian rock, and say that the act is not final, because he only commits the victim to the laws of…

The constitution says, “No state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.” Here we have a constitutional basis,--the same as for the reclamation of fugitive slaves.

I give the great majority even of the Whig leaders the credit of having yielded to this pressure reluctantly, and under what they deemed a sort of political duress; for, gentlemen, a new and most alarming fact in the history of the Whig…

Having read their last address and resolutions, I must now say, that if they desire any more votes of mine, they must revive my faith by some new evidence of their good works.

Well, before I either approve or condemn a “coalition,” I must know by whom, and for what purpose, it was formed.

A coalition, I suppose, like other acts, must be right or wrong according to the motive that prompts it.

Yes, fellow-citizens; for there is an attempt, and that attempt is to be followed up, to overwhelm the Free Soil party by obloquy and denunciation.

I believe the same charge against the Free Soil party will have come, twenty years hence, to the same result,--that of conferring honor upon its object, and infamy upon its authors.

But the coalition entered into by the Free Soil party in this state, last year, was a coalition planned, formed, sanctioned, and executed, as far as they could execute it, by the people themselves, acting in their original, sovereign…

It was not originated by representatives against the wishes of their constituents; but the representatives carried out what the people who chose them willed.

What conclusively proves this to be so is, that the people who elected these representatives were satisfied with what they did; and, since the work has been done, have shown their approval of it in every practicable way.

Sumner was not elected on any principle of availability, but on the principle of “Detur digniori,”--“Let it be given to the most worthy.” His lofty pedestal is too firm to be shaken by any such accusation.

His character is not to be affected by any office which he shall hold, but only by what he does, whether in office or out of it.

This would be the old and wicked partisan principle of standing by our party, right or wrong.

I lay down this great principle: I think the Free Soil party should act at any time, on any point, with any party through whom they can help the cause of freedom.

What interest of the country, then, has been faithfully cared for or secured?

The most prominent member of the administration has been engaged in carrying out the policy of the south,--in visiting southern cities to pander to the slave power, and northern cities to stifle the spirit of freedom.

Two armed expeditions have been fitted out in our own ports against the territory of a government with which we are at peace, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives, while the President and his first secretary have been spending their…

Collins, of Georgia, offering the use of the army and navy of the United States to catch one poor white woman, Ellen Crafts, and her husband, and return them to bondage.

A three-penny tax on tea was a real grievance,--one fit to be resisted unto blood, to be historically recorded, and to which we are not ashamed to refer when descanting upon the honor of our fathers.

But such largesses to slavery as kings could not afford to give, and the robbery of an entire race of all its rights,--yes, and with authority, too, to make us help commit the robbery,--these are “factitious and imaginary” causes of…