Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/194

THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS by leaving it to the several States, affected as they were by differing circumstances, to abolish slavery in their own way and at their own pleas- ure, instead of confiding that duty to Congress; and that they secured to the slave States, while yet retaining the system of slavery, a three- fifths representation of slaves in the federal government, until they should find themselves able to relinquish it with safety. But the very nature of these modifications fortifies my posi- tion — that the fathers knew that the two systems could not endure within the Union, and expected that within a short period slavery would disap- pear for ever. Moreover, in order that these modifications might not altogether defeat their grand design of a republic maintaining universal equality, they provided that two-thirds of the States might amend the Constitution. The very Constitution of the Democratic party commits it to execute all the designs of the slave-holders, whatever they may be. It is not a party of the whole Union — of all the free States and of all the slave States; nor yet is it a party of the free States in the North and in the Northwest; but it is a sectional and local party, having practically its seat within the slave States and counting its constituency chiefly and almost exclusively there. Of all its repre- sentatives in Congress and in the electoral colleges, two-thirds uniformly come from these States. Its great element of strength lies in the vote of the slave-holders, augmented by the 184