lature. Hence its cry for a “balance of power,” which meant either a permanent majority in Congress, or, if that could not be had, a vote strong enough to constitute a power of veto on all legislative acts. Hence its opposition to the admission of new Free States; hence its demand that slavery should take possession of all the national territories, out of which new Slave States might be formed. In this manner the slave power worked steadily for the conquest of supreme and absolute control of our national affairs; and had it succeeded, this Republic would now lie at its feet bound hand and foot, and the aristocratic element in this country would have achieved one of the strangest victories over the progressive spirit of this age.
It must be admitted, the slave power carried out its policy with such consummate acuteness, that Machiavelli himself, if he lived to-day, might profit from its teachings. The South was weak, the North was strong; but the South was united, and the North divided. The slave interest held tho balance of power between the political parties of the country, In an evil hour—an evil hour, indeed, for this Republic—a political party inaugurated that most demoralizing, that most pernicious principle, that to the victors belong the spoils. And the slave power rose up and said, “Only to him will I give these things who falls down and worships me.” And they fell down and worshipped in turn, but the “Democratic” party worshipped most. [Great applause.] To the victors belonged the spoils, and victory with the spoils could only be obtained by co-operation with and untiring subserviency to the slave power.
This was one of those dark periods in our political history which may send a blush to every manly cheek, and make us almost doubt of the innate nobility of human nature. The fate of a democratic republic seemed almost
