The work before us is plain. Kansas must be saved from a tyrannical usurpation, under which Slavery has been forcibly established on Free Soil. This is the special object of labor to which we are summoned by every consideration of regard for that distant Territory, and also by every sentiment of love for our common country. But this can be done only by her immediate welcome into the Union, under her present Constitution, as a Free State,--of course without recognition of the usurping Tyranny. Upon this we must insist, as the means essential to the end.
In achieving this result, an incidental good will be accomplished, which of itself should impel us to any exertion. The Slave Oligarchy has staked its power in the National Government upon the support of this usurpation. In the madness of its despotism, it has selected a position the least tenable of all its assumptions. To dislodge it from this position, and at the same time from its disgusting supremacy in the National Government, will be one and the same work. And all this will be easy to do, if the good people of the populous North, forgetting past differences, will but rally together. _Union to save Kansas, and Union to save ourselves_, should be the watchword.
Believe me, dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
THE APOLOGIES FOR THE CRIME; THE TRUE REMEDY.
SPEECH IN THE SENATE, MAY 19 AND 20, 1856.
Such busy multitudes I fain would see Stand upon Free Soil with a people free. GOETHE, _Faust_, Part II. Act V.
Nihil autem gloriosius libertate præter virtutem, si tamen libertas recte a virtute sejungitur.--JOHN OF SALISBURY, _Polycraticus_, Lib. VII. cap. 25.
On the 17th of March, 1856, Mr. Douglas introduced “A Bill to authorize the People of the Territory of Kansas to form a Constitution and State Government, preparatory to their Admission into the Union, when they have the requisite Population.” Subsequently, Mr. Seward moved, by way of substitute, another bill, providing for immediate action, and entitled “A Bill for the Admission of the State of Kansas into the Union.” Debate ensued, and was continued by adjournment from time to time. In the course of this debate, on the 19th and 20th of May, Mr. Sumner made the following speech.