Our old Commonwealth has been first and foremost in many
good works; let her lead in this also. And deem it not presumptuous,
if I ask it likewise for my own sake. I am a humble member of the
community; but I am deeply interested in the welfare and reputation
of my native State, and that gives me some claim to be heard. I am
growing old; and on this great question of equal rights I have
toiled for years, sometimes with a heart sickened by "hope
deferred." I beseech you to let me die on Free Soil! Grant me the
satisfaction of saying, ere I go hence--
"Slaves cannot breathe among us. If their lungs
Receive _our_ air, that moment they are free!
They touch _our_ country, and their shackles fall!"
If you cannot be induced to reform this great wickedness, for the
sake of outraged justice and humanity, then do it for the honor of
the State, for the political welfare of our own people, for the
moral character of our posterity. For, as sure as there is a
Righteous Ruler in the heavens, if you continue to be accomplices
in violence and fraud, God will _not_ "save the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
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