They are the offspring of an intellect
unshorn of its primal strength, and combining the ardor of youth with the
experience of age.
The disclosure made in these letters of the slavery influence exerted in
Congress over the representatives of the free states, of the manner in
which the rights of freemen have been bartered for Southern votes, or
basely yielded to the threats of men educated in despotism, and stamped
by the free indulgence of unrestrained tyranny with the "odious
peculiarities" of slavery, is painful and humiliating in the extreme. It
will be seen that, in the great struggle for and against the Right of
Petition, an account of which is given in the following pages, their
author stood, in a great measure, alone and unsupported by his Northern
colleagues. On his "gray, discrowned head" the entire fury of slave-
holding arrogance and wrath was expended. He stood alone, beating back,
with his aged and single arm, the tide which would have borne down and
overwhelmed a less sturdy and determined spirit.
We need not solicit for these letters, and the speech which accompanies
them, a thorough perusal.
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