Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/124

112 ther use his official influence to promote, nor who feels any disposition in his heart to promote, the farther extension of slavery in this country, and the further influence of it in the public councils."

Speaking of the free soil party and the Buffalo platform^ he says—"I hold myself to be as good a free soil man as any of the Buffalo convention." Of the platform, he says—"I can stand upon it pretty well." "I beg to know who is to inspire into my breast a more resolute and fixed determination to resist, unyieldingly, the encroachments and advances of the slave power in this country, than has inspired it, ever since the day that I first opened my mouth in the councils of the country."

If such language as this would not "deceive the very elect," what was more to the point, it was quite enough to deceive the electors. But now this language is forgotten; forgotten in general by the Whig party North; forgotten in special by those who seemed to be the exponents of the Whig party in Massachusetts; forgotten at any rate by the nine hundred and eighty-seven men who signed the letter to Mr Webster; and in particular it is forgotten by Mr Webster himself, who now says that it would disgrace his own understanding to vote for the extension of the Wilmot Proviso over the new territory! There were some men in New England who did not believe the statements of the Whig party North in 1848, because they knew the men that uttered the sentiments of the Whig party South. The leaders put their thumbs in the eyes of the people, and then said, "Do you see any dough in our faces?" "No!" said the people, "not a speck." "Then vote our ticket, and never say we are not hostile to slavery so long as you live."

At the South, the Whig party used language somewhat different. Here is a sample from the New Orleans Bee:—

"General Taylor is from birth, association, and conviction, identified with the South and her institutions; being one of the most extensive slave-holders in Louisiana—and supported by the slave-holding interest, as opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, and in favour of securing the privilege to the owners of slaves to remove with them to newly acquired territory." 3. Then there is the Democratic party. The distinctive