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1 Henry Wilson, Are Working-Men Slaves: Speech in Reply to the Hon. J. H. Hammond, of South Carolina, in the Senate, March 20, 1858, on the Bill to Admit Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution 1 (1858)

handle is hein.slavery/arwkmeslv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ARE WORKING-MEN_ SLAVES P SPEECH OF HON. HENRY WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS, IN REPLY TO HON. J. H. HAMMOND, OF S. C., IN THE SENATE, MARCH 20, 1858, ON THE BILL TO ADMIT KANSAS UNDER THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. Mr. President, this protracted debate, in which so many Senators have par- participated, is hastening to its close. Hundreds of thousands of the American people have watched its progress with the most intense and painful solicitude. When the President precipitated the question upon the country in his annual message, we were oppressed with the most profound apprehension for the result. - Hardly a ray of hope illumined our pathway. We heard the imperious voice of that gigantic power which sways the national Government, demanding the consummation of this crime against the people of Kansas. We saw the Chief Magistrate of the Republic holding in one hand honors and patronage to seduce and corrupt, and in the other power to smite down him who would not yield to his glittering blandishments. During these hundred days of con- flict, we have seen the honors, the patronage, and the power of this Government openly prostituted by the President to seduce the weak, and to strike down life-long Democrats who could not be won by corruption. Never-has this nation witnessed such shameless and indecent prostitution of executive power. Never have we witnessed such reeking corrup- tion, or such abject and unblushing servility. In spite, however, of the potent influences of executive powers of corruption and vengeance, of servility and treachery, our fears have yielded to our hopes, and our hopes are fast ripening into convictions that this Lecompton constitution can never receive the sanction of the Congress of the United States. Our hope is now strong that this Lecompton constitution, the slave power, and this Adminis- tration, will be consigned to that grave which knows no resurrection. The Administration may, by the corrupt appliances of executive power, win a barren and fleeting triumph, but the signs all around us indicate that it is doomed to utter defeat; that the slave power will fall with it, to rise not again; and that the intelligent and patriotic men of the colun- try, who love liberty and loathe fraud-men who are loyal to the Constitution and the Union, to law and order, will take the helm-and guide the ship of State hereafter on her course. Sir, that pure, patriotic, and illustrious statesman, John Quincy Adams, has left re- corded in his diary these pregnant words: It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle, '' establishes false estimates of virtue and vice, and perverts human reason. Day by day, as I have watched the startling events which have transpired in the ill-starred Territory of Kansas-day by day, as I have listened to the studied perversions of those deeds of fraud and violence, trickery, and falsehood, I have been reminded of the significant words of the great statesman, whose rich learning, varied and vast acquisitions, ripe experience, and matured intellect, were.devoted to the high service of the Republic, at home and abroad, for half a century. In this age, and in this land, where the lights of Christian civilization are flashing upon our pathway, that moral nature must be tainted, that heart must form false estimates of virtue and vice, and that reason must be perverted, before any citizen of America could be impelled to enact such crimes as have been enacted in Kansas, or uphold, defend, or apologize for them. Perverted reason and tainted moral principle may lure or impel to the commission of such acts as have stained the history of that Territory; but let Presidents and Senators remember, that from the hour the tempter glided into Paradise and hissed into the too willing ear of the mother of mankind disobedience to the * higher law, to the consum- mation of this work, no genius, no learning, no eloquence, could Blazon evil deeds or consecrate a crime. Great advocates have won fame before the judicial tribunals of the world in defence of great criminals, but that page of human history is yet to be written which shall record the enduring fame of statesmen won in the vindication of crimes against the rights of the people. The right of the people to frame their own forms of government as to them shall seem most conducive to their happiness, is an achieved American right. It was won, not by your Kansas-Nebraska act-it was won eighty-two years ago in the fire and blood of the Revo- lution. In amending old constitutions, or in framing new ones, we should, either in the State or in Congress, rise above little technicalitiee any forms. We should remember the words of James Madison, that forma ought o give way t9 substance; that a rigid

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