General Cass never took the ground that slavery could not exist in the new territories; and no inconsiderable part of the opposition made to him in Massachusetts and in other free states, was placed expressly upon the ground that he would…

Webster, in his Marshfield speech, September 1, 1848, opposed the election of General Cass, because, through his recreancy to northern principles, slavery would invade the territories.

It is the passage of a law to say that California and New Mexico shall remain forever free.

Is there a Whig upon this floor who doubts that the strength of the Whig party next March will insure freedom to California and New Mexico, if by the constitution they are entitled to freedom at all?

Is there a single Whig constituency, in any free state in this country, that would return any man that would not vote for freedom?

Do you believe that Daniel Webster himself could be returned if there was the least doubt upon the question?

Under such circumstances, is it frivolous or captious to ask for something more than a dogmatic assertion that slavery cannot impregnate these new regions, and cause them to breed monsters forever?

On a subject of such infinite importance I cannot be satisfied with a dictum; I want a demonstration.

I cannot accept the prophecy without inquiring what spirit inspired the prophet.

As a revelation from Heaven, it would be most delightful; but, as it conflicts with all human experience, it requires at least one undoubted miracle to attest the divinity of its origin.

Africans can exist here, for the best of all reasons,--they do exist here.

A state of slavery would not stop their respiration, nor cause them to vanish “into thin air.” Think, for a moment, of the complaints we constantly hear in certain circles, of the difficulty and vexatiousness of commanding domestic service.

Webster, and hundreds of others indeed, instead of applying to intelligence offices, or visiting emigrant ships for “domestics,” as we call them, go at once to the auction room and buy a man or a woman with as little hesitancy or…

If the cold of the higher latitudes checks the flow of African blood, or benumbs African limbs, the slaveholder knows very well that a trifling extra expense for whips will make up for the difference.

But suppose a doubt could be reasonably entertained about the invasion of the new territories by slavery.

Are we to submit a question of human liberty over vast regions and for an indefinite extent of time, to the determination of chance?

And by what rule of Christian morality, or even of enlightened heathen morality, can we deal differently with the kindred of others from what we would with our own?

He is not a Christian whose humanity is bounded by the legal degrees of blood, or by general types of feature.

Still, when the most precious interests of humanity are in peril, I would not be timid.

The south waged war with Mexico from one, and only one, motive; for one, and only one, object,--the extension of slavery.

I have discovered an irrepealable and irreversible law of nature, which overrules all the devices of men.

As much as freedom is higher than tariff, so much stronger than their dissent should be ours.

It has been well said that all law and all volition must be in harmony with the will of the Good Spirit, or with that of the evil one; and if we will not reënact the will of the former, then, either all legislation ceases, or we must…

It is this: Endless doubts and contradictions exist among men, as to what is the will of God; and on no subject is there a wider diversity of opinion than on this very subject of slavery.

True, it is useless to put upon our statute books an astronomical law, regulating sunrise, or high tides; but that is physical and beyond the jurisdiction of man, while slavery belongs to morals, and is within the jurisdiction of man.