I deny, sir, this charge, and call for the proof; it is gratuitous, uncalled for, and unjust towards my fellow citizens.  This is the language of a stricken conscience, seeking for the palliation of its own acts by charging guilt upon others.  It is the language of those who, failing in argument, endeavor to cast suspicion upon the character of their opponents, in order to draw public attention from themselves.  It is the language of disguise and concealment, and not that of fair and honorable investigation, the object of which is truth.  I again put in a broad denial to this charge, that any portion of these petitioners, whom I represent, seek to excite one portion of the country against another; and without proof I cannot admit that the assertion of the honorable Senator establishes the fact.  It is but opinion, and naked assertion only.  The Senator complains that the means and views of the abolitionists are not confined to securing the right of petition only; no, they resort to other means, he affirms, to the BALLOT BOX; and if that fail, says the Senator, their next appeal will be to the bayonet.  Sir, no man, who is an American in feeling and in heart, but ought to repel this charge instantly, and without any reservation whatever, that if they fail at the ballot box they will resort to the bayonet.  If such a fratricidal course should ever be thought of in our country, it will not be by those who seek redress of wrongs, by exercising the right of petition, but by those only who deny that right to others, and seek to usurp the whole power of the Government.  If the ballot box fail them, the bayonet may be their resort, as mobs and violence now are.  Does the Senator believe that any portion of the honest yeomanry of the country entertain such thoughts?  I hope he does not.  If thoughts of this kind exist, they are to be found in the hearts of aspirants to office, and their adherents, and none others.  Who, sir, is making this question a political affair?  Not the petitioners.  It was the slaveholding power which first made this move.  I have noticed for some time past that many of the public prints in this city, as well as elsewhere, have been filled with essays against abolitionists for exercising the rights of freemen.

Both political parties, however, have courted them in private and denounced them in public, and both have equally deceived them.  And who shall dare say that an abolitionist has no right to carry his principles to the ballot box?  Who fears the ballot box? The honest in heart, the lover of our country and its institutions?  No, sir!  It is feared by the tyrant; he who usurps power, and seizes upon the liberty of others; he, for one, fears the ballot box.  Where is the slave to party in this country who is so lost to his own dignity, or so corrupted by interest or power, that he does not, or will not, carry his principles and his judgment into the ballot box?  Such an one ought to have the mark of Cain in his forehead, and sent to labor