THE
PRESENT CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS:
THE SLAVE-HOLDERS' ATTEMPT TO WRENCH THE TERRITORIES FROM THE WORKING PEOPLE, AND TO SPREAD BONDAGE OVER ALL THE LAND.
DELIVERED ON THE EVENING OF MAY 7.
"Oh! ill for him, who, bettering not with time.
Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will.
And ever weaker grows through acted crime,
Or seeming-genial venial fault,—
Recurring and suggesting still!
He seems as one whose footsteps halt,—
Toiling in immeasurable sand,
And o*er a weary, sultry land,
Far beneath a blazing vault,
Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,
The city sparkles like a grain of salt."
America has now come to such a pass, that a small misstep may plunge us into lasting misery. Any other and older nation would be timidly conscious of the peril; but we, both so confident of destined triumph and so wonted to success, forecast only victory, and so heed none of all this danger. Who knows what is before us? By way of warning for the future, look at the events in the last six years.
1. In the spring of 1850, came the discussions on the Fugitive Slave Bill, and the programme of practical Atheism; for it was taught, as well in the Senate as the pulpits, that the American Government was amenable to no natural laws of God, but its own momentary caprice might take
