Defence of Massachusetts. Speech of Hon. Anson Burlingame, of Massachusetts, in the House of representatives, June 21, 1856.

Defence of Massachusetts..
SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME,
OF MASSACHUSETTS
IN THIE HOUSE OF IREPRESENTATIVES,
JUNE 21, 1856.
The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the and specific charges. a I am sorry to find at the
state of the Union, head of the list of her assailants the President
Mr. BURLINGAME said: of the United'States, who not only assails Mass
Mr. C-AIRMAN: The House will bear witness sachusetts, but the whole North. He defends
that I have not pressed myself upon its deliber- one section of the Union at the expense of the
ations. Inever before asked its indulgence. I other. He declares that one section has ever
have assailed no man; nor have I sought to been mindful of its constitutional obligations
bring reproach upon any man's State. But, and that the other has not.. He declares that,
while such has been my course, as well as the if one section of our country were a foreign
course of my colleagues from Massachusetts, country, the other would have just cause of war
upon this floor, certain members have seen fit against it. And to sustain these remarkable
to assail the State which we represent, not only declarations, he goes into an elaborate perver.
with words, but with blows. sion of history, such as that Virginia ceded her
In remembrance of these things, and seizing lands against the interests of the South, for the
the first opportunity which has presented.itself benefit of the North; when the truth is, she
for a long time, I stand here to-day to say a ceded her lands, as New Yoirk and other States
word for old Massachusetts-not that she needs did, for the benefit of the whole country. She
it; no, sir; for in all that constitutes true great- gave her lands to Freedom, because she thought
ness —in all that gives abiding strength-in Freedom was better than Slavery-because it
great qualities of head, and heart-in moral was the policy of the times, and events have
power-in material prosperity-in intellectual vindicated that policy.
resources and physical ability-by the general It is a perversion of history, when he says
judgment of mankind, according to her popu- that the territory of the country has been aclation, she is the first State. There does not quired more for the benefit of the North than
live the man anywhere, who knows anything, for the South; he says that substantially. Sir,
to whom praise of Massachusetts would not be out of the territory thus acquired, five slave
needless. She is as far beyond that as she is States, with a pledge for four more, and two
beyond censure. Members here may sneer at free States, have come into the Union; and
her-they may praise her past at the expense one of these, as we all know, fought its way
of her present; but I say, wila full convic- through a compromise degrading to the North.
tion of its truth, that Massachusetts, in her The North does not object to the acquisition
present performances, is even greater than in of territory, when it is desired, but she desires
her past recollections. And when I have said that it shall be free. If such a complexion had
this, what more can I say? been given to it, how different would have been
Sir, although I am here as her youngest and the fortunes of the Republic to-day! This mav
humblest member, yet, as her Representative, I be ascertained by comparing the progress of
feel that I am the peer of any man upon this Ohio with that of any slave State in the Missisfloor. Occupying that high stand-point, with sippi valley. It will appear more clearly by
modesty, but with firmness, I cast down her comparing the free with the slave regions. j
glove to the whole band of her assailants. have not time to do more than to presents.
She has been assailed in the House and out general picture.
of the House, at the other end of the Capitol, Freedom and Slavery started together in the
and at the other end of the avenue. There great race on this continent. In the very year
have been brought against her general charges the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock,