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VIII.
Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: It is an important occasion which has brought us together. A great crisis has occurred in the affairs of the United States. There is a great question now before the people. In any European country west of Russia and east of Spain, it would produce a revolution, and be settled with gunpowder. It narrowly concerns the material welfare of the nation. The decision that is made will help millions of human beings into life, or will hinder and prevent millions from being born. It will help or hinder the advance of the nation in wealth for a long time to come. It is a question which involves the honour of the people. Your honour and my honour are concerned in this matter, which is presently to be passed upon by the people of the United States. More than all this, it concerns the morality of the people. We are presently to do a right deed, or to inflict a great wrong on others and on ourselves, and thereby entail an evil upon this continent which will blight and curse it for many an age.
It is a great question, comprising many smaller ones:— Shall we extend and foster Slavery, or shall we extend and foster Freedom? Slavery, with its consequences, material, political,, intellectual, moral; or Freedom, with the consequences thereof?
A question so important seldom comes to be decided before any generation of men. This age is full of great questions, but this of Freedom is the chief It is the same question which in other forms comes up in Europe. This is presently to be decided here in the United States by the
