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not beginning with the destruction of a Bastile, but destined to end only with the overthrow of a tyranny differing little in hardship and audacity from that which sustained the Bastile of France: I mean the slave-power of the United States.
Let not people start at this similitude.
I intend no unkindness to individual slaveholders, many of whom are doubtless humane and honest.
And such was Louis XVI.; and yet he sustained the Bastile, with the untold horrors of its dungeons, where human beings were thrust into companionship with toads and rats.
βIn the pursuit of its purposes,β he continued,
the slave-power has obtained the control of both the great political parties of the country.
Their recent nominations have been made with a view to serve its interests, to secure its supremacy, and especially to promote the extension of slavery.
The Whigs and Democrats β use the old names still β professing to represent conflicting sentiments, yet concur in being the representatives of the slavepower.
Gen. Cass, after openly registering his adhesion to it, was recognized as the candidate of the Democrats.
Gen. Taylor, who owns slaves on a large scale, though observing a studious silence on the subject of slavery, as on all other subjects, is not only a representative of the slave-power, but an