"We protest," said
Douglas, in his great musical voice, facing the southern Senators,
"against being made puppets in this slavery excitement, which can
operate only against your interests and the building up of those who
wish to put you down. In the North it is not expected that we should
take the position that slavery is a positive good, a positive blessing.
If we did assume such a position it would be a very pertinent inquiry,
why do you not adopt this institution? We have moulded our institutions
in the North as we have thought proper; and now we say to you of the
South, if slavery be a blessing, it is your blessing; if it be a curse,
it is your curse; enjoy it--on you rests all the responsibility. We are
prepared to aid you in the maintenance of all your constitutional
rights; and I apprehend that no man, South or North, has shown more
constantly than I a disposition to do so. But I claim the privilege of
pointing out to you how you give strength and encouragement to the
Abolitionists of the North."
Mother Clayton had been long schooled in the questions which vexed the
matter of slavery. She thought Douglas showed great courage in these
words, but she was not satisfied with them. She felt that the South had
not been protected in its rights and that Douglas owed it to the South
to stand with the southern Senators.
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