THE VICE-PRESIDENCY.—­The individual who holds this office is ex-officio President of the Senate, and, as such, has a casting vote in all questions before that body.  During the last 20 years, with one exception, this functionary has always been a slave-holder.

THE OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE.—­This is second only in importance to the Presidency.  It is the duty of this officer to direct correspondence with foreign courts, instruct the foreign ministers, negotiate treaties, &c.  Of the 16 who have hitherto filled that office, 10 have been from the slave States, and 6 from the free.

THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.—­This officer has the appointment of all committees, and exerts an immense influence on the legislation of the country.  During 31 of the 34 years from 1811 to 1845 the Speakers were all slave-holders.

The slave power, having thus the whole machinery of government under its control, can at any time bring all the resources of the nation to bear upon the preservation and extension of the “peculiar institution.”  While Florida, for instance, belonged to Spain, it furnished an asylum for runaway slaves from the neighbouring States.  It must therefore be purchased by the Union, and five millions of dollars were paid for it.  Still the native Indians, those children of the forest, afforded a shelter to fugitives from slavery.  They must therefore be either exterminated or exiled.  A war was waged against them.  They were driven from the homes of their fathers, and the negroes among them hunted and shot like wild beasts.  At the urgent recommendation of Zachary Taylor—­the person who in March next will doubtless mount the presidential chair—­blood-hounds were purchased as AUXILIARIES to the army, at a cost of five thousand dollars; and blood-hounds and soldiers and officers marched together under the “star-spangled banner” in pursuit of the panting fugitives from Southern oppression.  In this expedition they captured 460 negroes, each one at the cost of the lives of two white men, and at a further expense of at least eighty thousand dollars per head.  The whole outlay of the war was forty millions of dollars, most of which was drawn from the pockets of Northern people.

The Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War—­all for the perpetuation and extension of slavery—­are fresh in your remembrance.

And here I quit the land of “The Bond and the Free.”

  “Nineveh, Babylon, and ancient Rome
  Speak to the present times, and times to come: 
  They cry aloud in every careless ear,
  ’Stop, while you may; suspend your mad career;
  Oh! learn from our example and our fate,—­
  Learn wisdom and repentance ere too late.’”