44 SPEECHES [Mar. 5
at the South are the same as those at the North,
barring the difference in circumstances. Public
opinion is founded, to a great extent, on a prop-
erty basis. What lessens the value of property
is opposed; what enhances its value is favored.
Public opinion at the South regards slaves as
property, and insists upon treating them like
other property.
On the other hand, the free States carry on
their government on the principle of the equality
of men. We think slavery is morally wrong,
and a direct violation of that principle. We
all think it wrong. It is clearly proved, I think,
by natural theology, apart from revelation.
Every man, black, white, or yellow, has a mouth
to be fed, and two hands with which to feed it —
and bread should be allowed to go to that mouth
without controversy.
Slavery is wrong in its effect upon white peo-
ple and free labor. It is the only thing that
threatens the Union. It makes what Senator
Seward has been much abused for calling an "ir-
repressible conflict." When they get ready to
settle it, we hope they will let us know. Public
opinion settles every question here; any policy to
be permanent must have public opinion at the
bottom — something in accordance with the
philosophy of the human mind as it is. The
property basis will have its weight. The love of
property and a consciousness of right or wrong
have conflicting places in our organization, which
often make a man's course seem crooked, his
conduct a riddle.
Some men would make it a question of in-
difference, neither right nor wrong, merely a
question of dollars and cents; — the Almighty
