Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/202

Rh Now, gentlemen and ladies, who is to blame that things have come to such a pass as this? The South and the North; but the North much more than the South,—very much more. Gentlemen, we let Gog get upon the Ark; we took pay for his passage. Our most prominent men in Church and State have sworn allegiance to Gog. But this is not always to last; there is a day after to-day—a behind each to-day.

The North ought to nave fought Slavery at the adoption of the Constitution, and at every step since; after the battle was lost then, we should have resisted each successive step of the slave power. But we have yielded— yielded continually. "We made no fight over the annexation of slave territory, the admission of slave States. We should have rent the Union into the primitive townships sooner than consent to the Fugitive Slave Bill. But as we failed to fight manfully then, I never thought the North would rally on the Missouri Compromise line. I rejoice at the display of indignation I witness here and elsewhere. For once New York appears more moral than Boston, I thank you for it. A meeting is called in the Park to-morrow. It is high time. But I doubt that the North will yet rally and defend the line drawn in 1830. But there are two lines of defence where the nation will pause, I think—the occupation of Cuba, with its war so destructive to Northern ships; and the restoration of the African slave-trade. The slave-breeding States, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, will oppose that; for, if the Gulf States, and the future tropical territories can import Africans at $100 a head, depend upon it, that will spoil the market for the slave-breeders of America. And, gentlemen, if Virginia cannot sell her own children, how will this "well-born, well-educated, well-bred aristocrat" look down on the poor and ignorant Yankee! No, gentlemen, this iniquity is not to last for ever. A certain amount of force will compress a cubic foot of water into nine-tenths of its natural size; but the weight of the whole earth cannot make it any smaller. Even the North is not infinitely compressible. When atom touches atom, you may take off the screws.

Things cannot continue long in this condition. Every triumph of Slavery is a day's march towards its ruin.