Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/149

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS regulations for the enjoyment of the common domain devolves upon Congress — ^the common agent of all the parties interested in it. In the execution of this trust it is the duty of Congress to pass all laws for an equal and just participa- tion in it. And far from this common agent having any right to exclude a portion of the people, or "to make distinctions to their disad- vantage/' it is the duty of Congress to open the country by the removal of all obstructions, whether they be existing laws or anything else, and to give equal protection to all who may avail themselves of the right to use it. But you men of the North say that we of the South wish to carry our slaves there, and that the free labor of the North can not submit to the degradation of being associateu with slave labor. Well, then we say, as the patriarch of old said to his friend and kinsman, when disputes arose between the herdsmen of their cattle : "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be breth- ren. Is not the whole land before thee? Sep- arate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or, if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." In other words, we say, if you can not agree to enjoy this public domain in common, let us divide it. You take a share, and let us take a share. And I again submit to an intelligent and candid world if the prop- osition is not fair and just? — and whether its 139