compelled the great political parties of the country to creep in
the dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the
Christianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with
Golden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes,
and husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir,
I plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty,
and say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never
furnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed
the Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest
slaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great
slaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true
exponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice
and liberty, holds four millions of slaves.

No, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal
from the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving
Constitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in
carrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the
dreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament,
carried out the spirit of the Constitution.

But, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the
letter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon
the articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive
Slave Law is designed to carry out.

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of