While our fathers were colonists of England we had no distinctive political or literary character.

The owner of ten slaves believes that slavery is not an evil.

The owner of a hundred believes it a blessing.

The worshipper of mammon and the philosophical atheist hold no communion with the signers of the declaration that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.

But, with these exceptions, poll the whole mass of Christian men, of every name, sect, or denomination, throughout the globe, and you will not hear a solitary voice deny that slavery is a wrong, a crime, and a curse.

To such disreputable subterfuges party spirit can condescend, to gratify malignity, or to obscure merit from the knowledge of the world, to the power of which it is itself compelled to yield.

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…

The charge, therefore, that our government did really give up that important territory, when it was at its option to retain it, is purely and unqualifiedly untrue; and I now charge that it was known by Mr.

The argument for the annexation, or reännexation, of Texas is as gross an imposture as ever was palmed upon the credulity of an honest people.

They have transmitted that freedom to you; and upon you now devolves the duty of transmitting it unimpaired to your posterity.

The spirit of freedom and the spirit of slavery are drawing together for the deadly conflict of arms.

Texas and slavery are interwoven in every banner floating on the Democratic breeze. 'Freedom or death' should be inscribed on ours.

May the Ruler of the universe preserve you from such degradation! 'Freedom!

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.

Adams replied: "I have no hesitation to say I hold that act unconstitutional and void.

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.

He knew how little a majority of the men of his own time were disposed or qualified to estimate his character with justice.

His spirit of liberty was fostered and inspired by the writings of Milton, Sydney, and Locke, of which the American Declaration of Independence was an emanation, and the constitution of the United States, with the exception of the clauses…