They send
from their twelve States one hundred members, while the fourteen
free States, with a free population nearly double, return but a
hundred and forty-two. Before whom do the presidential candidates
bow down the most humbly, on whom do they fawn the most fondly, and
for whose tastes do they cater the most assiduously in their
servile protestations? The slave-owners always.
Public opinion! hear the public opinion of the free South, as
expressed by its own members in the House of Representatives at
Washington. 'I have a great respect for the chair,' quoth North
Carolina, 'I have a great respect for the chair as an officer of
the house, and a great respect for him personally; nothing but that
respect prevents me from rushing to the table and tearing that
petition which has just been presented for the abolition of slavery
in the district of Columbia, to pieces.' - 'I warn the
abolitionists,' says South Carolina, 'ignorant, infuriated
barbarians as they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into
our hands, he may expect a felon's death.' - 'Let an abolitionist
come within the borders of South Carolina,' cries a third; mild
Carolina's colleague; 'and if we can catch him, we will try him,
and notwithstanding the interference of all the governments on
earth, including the Federal government, we will HANG him.
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