Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/31

Rh tion be in favor of freedom, according to the fundamental principle of the good old Anglo-Saxon common law? No, sir, the slaveholder shall have the inherent right to go into the territory with his slaves, and to hold them there as slaves; the right of a man to own his laborer is, as such, recognised by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. And here let me add, that the Dred Scott decision is a most logical construction of the Nebraska Bill [loud cheers] and acknowledged to be such by Mr. Douglas himself, and that his quibbles between his squatter sovereignty, and that decision are the most contemptible subterfuges by which ever a pettifogger made himself ridiculous. [Continued applause.] Thus Mr. Douglas's popular sovereignty is based upon a presumption in favor of slavery! upon the presumption that slavery exists of right, where it is not prohibited by positive legislation. [Cheers.]

True popular sovereignty means the removal of all barriers which the ingenuity of despotism has set to human liberty. [Cheers.] But Mr. Douglas tells you that the true foundation of American popular sovereignty is the right of slavery to exist where it is not expressly prohibited, and that it means the removal of all barriers which American patriotism has set to human bondage! [Applause.] If you could ask Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, Madison, Henry Clay, for their opinions—who of them would christen this abominable mixture with the great name of popular sovereignty? They would have stigmatized it as a contemptible bastard, begotten in the adulterous embrace of Democracy and slavery, with the features of liberty on its face, but with the black venom of despotism in its heart. [Long-continued applause.]

I repeat it, sir, this so-called popular sovereignty is but a new embodiment of the old antagonism, but a new signboard to the old concern; a new melody to the old song [cheers]; a new trap set for old fools. [Thundering ap-