In all national territories Slavery will be impossible.
On the high seas, under the national flag, Slavery will be impossible.
In the District of Columbia Slavery will instantly cease.
Inspired by these principles, Congress can give no sanction to Slavery
by the admission of new slave States.
Nowhere under the Constitution can the Nation, by legislation or
otherwise, support Slavery, hunt slaves, or hold property in man.
Such, sir, are my sincere convictions. According to the Constitution,
as I understand it, in the light of the past and of its true principles,
there is no other conclusion which is rational or tenable, which
does not defy authoritative rules of interpretation, does not falsify
indisputable facts of history, does not affront the public opinion in
which it had its birth, and does not dishonor the memory of the fathers.
And yet politicians of the hour undertake to place these convictions
under formal ban. The generous sentiments which filled the early
patriots, and impressed upon the government they founded, as upon the
coin they circulated, the image and superscription of LIBERTY, have lost
their power.
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