Page:The landmark of freedom.djvu/9

Rh flame; but, in every form and shape, identical in substance; with but one end and aim—its be-all and end-all—the overthrow of the prohibition of slavery.

At first, it proposed simply to declare, that the States formed out of this territory should be admitted into the Union, "with or without slavery," and did not directly assume to touch this prohibition. For some reason this was not satisfactory, and then it was precipitately proposed to declare, that the prohibition in the Missouri act "was superseded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, and is hereby declared inoperative." But this would not do; and it is now proposed to declare, that the prohibition, "being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention, by Congress, with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void."

All this is to be done on pretences founded upon the slavery enactments of 1850, thus seeking, with mingled audacity and cunning, "by indirection to find direction out." Now, Sir, I am not here to speak in behalf of those measures, or to lean in any way upon their support. Relating to different subject-matters, contained in different acts, which prevailed successively, at different times, and by different votes—some persons voting for one measure, and some