As to the house itself, if an article of the constitution had prescribed, or a standing rule of the house had required, that no other than a slaveholder should ever be its Speaker, the regulation could not be more rigorously observed than it is by the compact movements of the slave representation in the house.
Quincy critiques the House of Representatives for its apparent bias towards slaveholders in leadership roles.
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More from Josiah Quincy
Texas and slavery are interwoven in every banner floating on the Democratic breeze. 'Freedom or death' should be inscribed on ours.
Though conscious, being then in his seventy-eighth year, that he stood on the threshold of human life, he sought no relaxation from duty, no exemption from its performance.
Union!' be this the watchword of your camp; and if Ate, hot from hell, will come and cry 'Havoc!' fight--fight and conquer, under the banner of universal freedom.
In what language of composure or of decency can I say to you that there is in this bitter and venomous charge not one single word of truth; that it is from beginning to end grossly, glaringly, wilfully false?--false even in the name of the…
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