But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this document present, in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves endure?
In the one case it is hardly the plucking of a hair from the head; in the other, it is the crushing of a live body on the wheel--the stings of the wasp contrasted with the tortures of the Inquisition.

Before God I must say that such a glaring contradiction as exists between our creed and practice the annals of six thousand years cannot parallel.

In view of it I am ashamed of my country.

I am sick of our unmeaning declamation in praise of liberty and equality; of our hypocritical cant about the inalienable rights of man.

I would not for my right hand stand up before a European assembly, and exult that I am an American citizen, and denounce the usurpations of a kingly government as wicked and unjust; or, should I make the attempt, the recollection of my country's barbarity and despotism would blister my lips, and cover my cheeks with burning blushes of shame." Passing to his second proposition, which affirmed the right of the free States to be in at the death of slavery, he pointed out that slavery was not sectional but national in its influence.