Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/75

 ;U^(L.-^ WEBSTER tion did they hold it at the time when this Con- stitution was adopted? It will be found, sir, if we will carry ourselves by historical research back to that day, and ascertain men's opinions by authentic records still existing among us, that there was no diversity of opinion between the North and the South upon the subject of slavery. It will be found that both parts of the country held it equally an evil, a moral and political evil. It will not be found that, either at the North or at the South, there was much, tho there was some, invective against slavery as inhuman and cruel. The great ground of objection to it was politi- cal; that it weakened the social fabric; xhat, ta- king the place of free labor, society became less strong and labor less productive; and therefore we find from all the eminent men of the time the clearest expression of their opinion that slavery is an evil. They ascribed its existence here, not without truth, and not without some acerbity of temper and force of language, to the injurious policy of the mother country, who, to favor the navigator, had entailed these evils upon the Colonies. The whole interest of the South became con- influence the war was postponed for ten years, the North thus gain- ing time to increase its resources. Blaine has pointed out that in 1861 a recession from the antislavery position of an earher period had become -vrith Republicans " part of the conciliatory policy of the hour," and that they, as led by Seward, " took precisely the same ground held by Mr. Webster in 1850, and acted from precisely the same motives that inspired ' The Seventh of March Speech.' '' IX— S 65