Less than ten years after the annexation of Texas, it was discovered by Southern men that there was a Territory west of Missouri, wherein the peculiar institution of the South could be made profitable; but by a solemn league and covenant this land had been, for more than a third of a century, consecrated to freedom.
Tompkins points out the discovery of new territories for slavery, despite previous commitments to freedom.
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I charge them as direct, positive aggressions, on the rights of the free people of the North.
Labor of every species is disreputable, because performed mostly by slaves; the general aspect of the country marks the curse of a wasteful, idle, reckless population, who have no interest in the soil, and care not how much it is…
I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it.
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free.
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