choly tokens of the power of slavery, under our political system, and especially through the operations of the National Government, that it loosens and destroys the character of northern men, even at a distance—like the black magnetic mountain in the Arabian story, under whose irresistible attraction the iron bolts, which held together the strong timbers of a stately ship, were drawn out, till the whole fell apart, and became a disjointed wreck. Alas! too often those principles, which give consistency, individuality, and form to the northern character, which render it staunch, strong, and seaworthy, which bind it together as with iron, are drawn out, one by one, like the bolts of the ill-fated vessel, and from the miserable, loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly—a northern man with southern principles. Sir,—No such man can speak for the North.
[Here there was an interruption of prolonged applause in the galleries.]
The President (Mr. Stuart in the chair). The Chair will be obliged to order the galleries to be cleared, if order is not preserved. No applause will be allowed.
Several Voices. Let them be cleared now.
Mr. Sumner. Mr. President, I advance now to considerations of a more general character, to which I ask your best attention. Sir, this bill is proposed as a measure of peace. In this way you vainly think to withdraw the subject of slavery from na-
