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
