Their remedy was to apply to
the acquisitions, after they should come in, the Wilmot Proviso. What
follows? These two gentlemen, worthy and honorable and influential men
(and if they had not been they could not have carried the measure),
these two gentlemen, members of this body, brought in Texas, and by
their votes they also pre-vented the passage of the resolution of the
honorable member from Georgia, and then they went home and took the lead
in the Free Soil party. And there they stand, Sir! They leave us here,
bound in honor and conscience by the resolutions of annexation; they
leave us here, to take the odium of fulfilling the obligations in
favor of slavery which they voted us into, or else the greater odium of
violating those obligations, while they are at home making capital and
rousing speeches for free soil and no slavery. And therefore I say, Sir,
that there is not a chapter in our history, respecting public measures
and public men, more full of what would create surprise, and more full
of what does create, in my mind, extreme mortification, than that of the
conduct of the Northern Democracy on this subject.
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