the patriot soul exclaim, in bitter words, wrung out by bitter experience: "Oh Liberty! what crimes are done in thy name!"
In vain, Sir, you will plead, that this measure proceeds from the North, as has been suggested by the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Dixon]. Even if this were true, it would be no apology. But, precipitated as this bill has been upon the Senate, at a moment of general calm, and in the absence of any controlling exigency, and then hurried to a vote in advance of the public voice, as if fearful of arrest, it cannot be justly called the offspring of any popular sentiment. In this respect it differs widely from the Missouri prohibition, which, after solemn debate, extending through two sessions of Congress, and ample discussion before the people, was adopted. Certainly there is, as yet, no evidence that this measure, though supported by northern men, proceeds from that northern sentiment which is to be found, strong and fresh, in the schools, the churches, and homes of the people. Populi omnes Ad Aquilonem positi Libertatem quandem spirant. And could this scheme be now submitted to the awakened millions whose souls have been truly ripened under northern skies, it would be branded at once with an indignant and undying condemnation.
But the race of men, "white slaves of the North," described and despised by a southern statesman, is not yet extinct there, Sir. It is one of the melan-
