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creating and upholding the title to a species of property valued at Four Thousand Millions of dollars, could hardly fail to make itself respected and influential in every department of the public service, and through every act of the Federal authorities calculated to affect its stability, its prosperity, or its power.
But, up to this time, Slavery had sought and obtained the protection and championship of the Federal Government expressly as a domestic institution — as an important interest of a certain portion of the American people.
In the Annexation of Texas, and in the reasons officially adduced therefor, it challenged the regard of mankind and defied the consciences of our own citizens as a great National interest, to the protection of which, at all hazards and under all circumstances, our Government was inflexibly committed, and with whose fortunes those of our country were inextricably blended.
For the first time, our Union stood before the nations, not merely as an upholder, but as a zealous, unscrupulous propagandist of Human Slavery.
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