Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/332

Rh necessary I should criticise their action—I have done that often enough before. If we deserve any praise, let others give it, or give it not, as suits them best.

There has been a great change in the people of the North—else, Mr. President, we were not here to-night. You remember the Legislatures of 1850, 1851, 1852—what if you had asked them for this hall! In 1851, even Faneuil Hall could not be had for a Convention of fifteen hundred as respectable and intelligent men as ever assembled in the United States, with Horace Mann at their head. We are here to-night by the will of the people of Massachusetts. For many years we have come up before the Legislature of this State ; it has always heard us patiently, and I think at length has always done what we asked. Former Legislatures have done all in their power to remove the only Massachusetts Judge of Probate that ever kidnapped a man. I make no doubt this Legislature will as faithfully represent the conscience of the State. I say there has been a great change in the people. Compare the old Daily Advertiser with the new, which I think one of the humanest as well as ablest newspapers in New England.

I recall the fate of the Northern men who voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. There were thirteen Northern senators who did so. The official term has expired for ten of them. Nine of the ten lost their election — veteran old Mr. Cass at their head ; the Camden and Amboy Hailroad sent back Mr. Thompson to represent their rolling-stock. Stuart of Michigan, Jones of Iowa, and Douglas of Illinois, abide their time. Forty-two Northern representatives were equally false to Democracy. Thirty-nine of them have gone to their own place, only three returned to their seats: J. Glancey Jones, and T. B. Florence of Pennsylvania, and W. H. English, of Indiana, alone remain. If the South is more confident of victory than ever, the North is also more determined to conquer. The late elections show this: that of Mr. Banks is a very significant sign of the times. The "rebellion" of Mr. Douglas, so his old masters call it, is popular at the North. He could be elected to the Senate to-morrow by a vote of the people of Illinois. I do