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most sincerely embraced the Democratic Idea; not, indeed, as represented or professed by any party, but according to its real significance, as transfigured in the Declaration of Independence, and in the injunctions of Christianity.
Party does not constrain me; nor is my independence lessened by any relations to the office which gives me a title to be heard on this floor.
And here, sir, I may speak proudly.
By no effort, by no desire of my own, I find myself a Senator of the United States.
Never before have I held public office of any kind.
With the ample opportunities of private life I was content.
No tombstone for me could bear a fairer inscription than this: ‘Here lies one who, without the honors or emoluments of public station, did something for his fellow-man.’
From such simple aspirations I was taken away by the free choice of my native Commonwealth, and placed in this responsible post of duty, without personal obligation of any kind, beyond what was implied in my life and published words.
The earnest friends, by whose confidence I was first designated, asked nothing from me, and, throughout the long conflict which ended in my election, rejoiced in the position which I most carefully guarded.
To all my language was uniform, that I did not desire to be brought forward; that I would do nothing to promote the result; that I had no pledges or promises to offer; that the office should seek me, and not I the office; and that it should find me in all respects an independent man, bound to no party and to no human being, but only, according to my best judgment, to act for the good of all. In this spirit I have come here, and in this spirit I shall speak to-day.
He early disclaims violence and discourtesy in debate, into whose indulgence he was never to be provoked.
Rejoicing in my independence, and claiming nothing from party ties, I throw myself upon the candor and magnanimity of the Senate.
I now ask your attention; but I trust not to abuse it. I may speak strongly; for I shall speak openly and from the strength of my convictions.
I may speak warmly; for I shall speak from the heart.
But in no event can I forget the amenities which belong to debate, and which especially become this body.
Slavery I must condemn with my whole soul; but here I need only borrow the language of slaveholders themselves; nor would it accord with my habits or my sense of justice to exhibit them as the impersonation of the institution—Jefferson calls it the ‘enormity’—which they cherish.
Of them I do not speak; but without fear and without favor, as without impeachment of any person,
