when we are defeated, who do not, instead
of walking with their beads down, stand up
to the work; every man who is not ready to
shoulder a musket and go and fight whenever
his country needs him. Such men I call
copperheads. The gentleman overlooked the
point I made, that the scoundrel who hisses
that slander and lie into a foreigner's ear
pretends to be an American citizen, and is a
native of the soil and a Northern man.
Mr. BILLINGSLEY, With the gentleman's
permission, I will say that when I used the
expression I am a Roman citizen, it was in
regard to the charge of Cicero against Verres
in his oration against his exactions, that even
the exclamation "I am a Roman citizen,"
that had always been respected up to that
time, did not save a man from the scores of
the lictors. I said also, that we boasted of
being American citizens; but did that save
us from the desolation of our homes? I ask
the gentleman whether he justifies this Gov-
ernment in going into Maryland and taking
away by force the servants that are of no use
whatever to the Government, the aged wo-
men and children.
Mr. PUGH. The gentleman will be an-
swered hereafter. I understood perfectly
well the manner in which the gentleman used
the words " Roman citizen," and I only ap-
pealed to him as having recalled the talismanic
import of those words, to join with me in
this anathema against a base American citi-
zen.
May there never be for him in any country
or in any clime, a sterile rock. or blade of
grass that he can call his own. May his fate
be that of Arnold, who in the presence of
Talleyrand, exclaimed, " I am the only man
born in America who can raise his hand to
Almighty God and say, I have not one friend,
not one in all America." Such American
citizens do not deserve to have a country or
protection,
I admit the fact also, that some Northern
men favored the slave trade, abhorrent as it
is, and would probably do so to-day just as
the leaders—the outspoken leaders of this
rebellion, and in fact a large majority of all
slaveholders would favor it to-day.
It has never been suppressed, never will be
suppressed until slavery is abolished. Ever
since the act of 1820 was passed, it has exist-
ed and been winked at, and every brute en-
gaged in it protected by chicanery and finesse.
It was placed on the statute books
with all honesty doubtless, but in view of
results under it, the impression must pre-
vail that it was only placed there to look
well—at soothing potion administered side-
ways to appease an outraged community.
What is the fact? The statute has been
written, the laws enacted since 1820; during
forty-one years there was not one convicted
under it. The first was that of Gordon, in |
November, 1861, and that happened only
because it suddenly occurred lo the American
people and the government which they elect-
ed and were ready to sustain, that the insti-
tution of slavery was driving its fangs into
the vitals of the nation and must die. It
was only when the government had become
at least partially anti-slavery.
And how can the slave trade besuppressed
effectually as long as the system of slavery
itself exists? It is a part of the system. You
create a market more enticing, appealing
more strongly lo the cupidity of men than
any other known. The adventurer meed on-
ly dodge the law (not vigilantly guarded or
promptly executed) which he knows you
wink at, and he receives at your hands an
immense reward. He supposing that he has
the patriarchal ideas that you have, (and you
would certainly encourage him to entertain
them) knows, firstly, that the institution is
beneficial to the African race, for yon teach
him so; secondly, that the whole Christian
and political community with whom he associates,
sustain it and demand its protection
and diffusion. Hence bow can he be other-
wise than convinced that the law which
makes his act piracy is a mere matter of form,
and means nothing practical.
Rest assured, gentlemen, the only enemies
of the infernal slave trade, denominated pi-
racy, are those who are also the enemies of the
institution of slavery itself; that all argu-
ments that can be made to support the one
will support the other, that when you once
indorse the idea that one man can absolutely
own another, the limit is reached, and there
is no atrocity against human nature that can-
not in some manner bejustified after that.
It was this infamous commerce that first
roused the people in this country; but their
opposition was of a mild form. The original
abolitionists of the North were opposed to all
governmental interference with the institu-
tion, they only claimed the right to speak and
persuade people of the wrong.
The institution meantime had not become
the lever of political power that it afterward
became. The opposition to the admission of
Missouri was rather a moral than a political
opposition on the part of a large portion of
its opponents in the North. Then the cotton
gin was invented, and avarice shook hands
with vice. The evil grew ponderous and the
opposition alarmed; and such wars the skill
with which this lever was handled, and such
the force with which it operated by appeal-
ing to the prejudices of the people, raising
the cry of negro equality, &c., holding con-
stantly the balance of power, having one
watch-word that rallied the whole section to
their standard, that indeed it seemed at one
time as though the wrong would triumph,
and the country be a slaveholding nation as a
whole.
Then came the compromise measures of |
