Page:Speech of Mr. Chas. Hudson, of Mass., on the Three Million Appropriation Bill - delivered in the House of Representatives of the U.S., Feb. 13, 1847 (IA speechofmrchashu00hudsrich).pdf/18

 territory. The South declare upon this floor that if territory is acquired, it must be slave territory; that they will not submit to be surrounded by a cordon of free States. On the other hand, the North have resolved, and firmly resolved, that not another foot of slave territory shall be added to the "Union. Here, then, an issue is directly made, and I have no doubt but that the North will be found true to her principles, when the day of trial conies. You may flatter yourselves with the prospect of buying up north ern votes: you may find men here who will betray their friends, and attempt to commit their constituents; but when they return to their homes, and submit their claims to their constituents, they will find an indignant and betrayed people ready to give them the traitor's due. I should like to know whether the honest yeomanry of Pennsylvania will allow their representatives on this floor to disregard their feelings with impunity, and trample the resolves of their legislature in the dust?

I tell you, Mr. Chairman, that the North will stand firm. You cannot judge of the present by the past. Within two years there has been a radical change in public sentiment in the free States. The Texas outrage, followed by this iniquitous war, both for the extension of slavery, has brought the people to their senses. From the State of Maine, from the granite hills of New Hampshire, from united New England, the word has gone forth, and the glorious response from New York, from Pennsylvania, from Ohio, leaves no doubt on the subject of public feeling. The sentiment is deep rooted; it is a strong religious conviction that slavery is a curse, and is at war with the best interests of our country and of humanity. A great moral revolution has commenced, and such revolutions can never go backward. They have seen this Administration breaking through the barriers of the Constitution to sustain and extend slavery, and the people in the free Slates have resolved that the evil shall extend no farther. I say to the South in all frankness, you will find northern sentiment immovable on this subject, “as firm as nature, and as fixed as fate." And [ will say to these Democrats of the North, who are fawning around this weak Administration, and betraying northern interests, that they may pick the crumbs which fall from, the Executive table—you are treasuring up for yourselves wrath against the day of wrath. You may league all your forces with those of the President, you may give him all the aid in your power, in the prosecution of this war of conquest, that the free territory of Mexico may be brought into this Union to increase the slave power, but your labor will be fruit less. You may at this time meet with partial success; you may vote down the anti-slavery proviso, but it will rise again and haunt, you like the ghost of Banquo. Another Congress will be here before this subject can be finally disposed of; and, being more fresh from the people than yourselves, they will speak a different language. You may attempt another compromise with slavery, but the people will discard it. You may make a covenant with that institution, and bind yourselves to its support, but T tell you, in the strong language of the Hebrew prophet, "Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down, by it."

Do not all these considerations, sir, show that the war in which we are engaged is one of no ordinary character? I have attempted to show, and think not without success, that the war is aggressive on our part; that it was commenced by the Executive in contravention of the Constitution, and that without any just cause; that it is prosecuted for the unholy purpose of