Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/327

314 stituency behind him not of doughfaces. Here is the speech of Mr. James B. Gardenhire, lately made in the House of Representatives at Jefferson City, Missouri. It is of the same tenor as Mr. Blair's, and advocates the abolition of Slavery in Missouri itself.

3. Here is something from Republican Members of Congress. Not to mention others from New England, or elsewhere, here is a speech from Hon. Eli Thayer, ironical, sometimes, I take it, but plain and direct in substance. He would have the free States send settlers to Northenize the South—already he has a colony in Virginia—and New Englandize Central America! "The Yankee," says Mr, Thayer, "has never become a slave-holder, unless he has been forced to it by the social relations of the slave State where he lived; and the Yankee who has become a slave-holder has every day of his life thereafter felt in his very bones the bad economy of the system." "Why, sir, he can buy a negro power in a steam-engine for ten dollars, and he can clothe and feed that power for one year for five dollars; and are we the men to give ^1000 for an African slave, and $150 a year to feed and clothe him?"

This is an anti-Slavery argument which traders can understand. Mr. Thayer is not so much a talker as an organizer; he puts his thoughts into works. You know how much Kansas owes him for the organization he has set on foot. One day will he not also revolutionize Virginia? There is a to-morrow after to-day.

Here is a speech from Hon. John P. Hale. I think it is the ablest he ever made,—the first any one has made, I think, since the discussion caused by the assault on Mr. Simmer. It relates to Kansas and the Dred Scot decision. Hear what he says of the latter:—

"If the opinion of the Supreme Court be true, it makes the immortal authors of the Declaration of Independence liars before God and hypocrites before the world; for they lay down their sentiments broad, full, and explicit, and then they say that they appeal to the Supreme Ruler of the universe for the rectitude of their intentions > but, if you believe the Supreme Court, they were merely quibbling on words. They went into the courts of the Most High, and pledged fidelity to their principles as the price they would pay for success, and now it is attempted to cheat them out of the poor boon of integrity; and it is said that they did not mean so; and that when they said all men, they meant all white men; and when they said that the contest they waged was for the rights of mankind, the Supreme Court of the United States would have you believe