But the Senator is not content to entreat the clergy alone to desist; he calls on his countrywomen to warn them, also, to cease their efforts, and reminds them that the ink shed from the pen held in their fair fingers when writing their names to abolition petitions, may be the cause of shedding much human blood!  Sir, the language towards this class of petitioners is very much changed of late; they formerly were pronounced idlers, fanatics, old women and school misses, unworthy of respect from intelligent and respectable men.  I warned gentlemen then that they would change their language; the blows they aimed fell harmless at the feet of those against whom they were intended to injure.  In this movement of my countrywomen I thought was plainly to be discovered the operations of Providence, and a sure sign of the final triumph of universal emancipation.  All history, both sacred and profane, both ancient and modern, bears testimony to the efficacy of female influence and power in the cause of human liberty.  From the time of the preservation, by the hands of women, of the great Jewish law-giver, in his infantile hours, and who was preserved for the purpose of freeing his countrymen from Egyptian bondage, has woman been made a powerful agent in breaking to pieces the rod of the oppressor.  With a pure and uncontaminated mind, her actions spring from the deepest recesses of the human heart.  Denounce her as you will, you cannot deter her from her duty.  Pain, sickness, want, poverty and even death itself form no obstacles in her onward march.  Even the tender Virgin would dress, as a martyr for the stake, as for her bridal hour, rather than make sacrifice of her purity and duty.  The eloquence of the Senate, and clash of arms, are alike powerful when brought in opposition to the influence of pure and virtuous woman.  The liberty of the slave seems now to be committed to her charge, and who can doubt her final triumph?  I do not.—­You cannot fight against her and hope for success; and well does the Senator know this; hence this appeal to her feelings to terrify her from that which she believes to be her duty.  It is a vain attempt.

The Senator says that it was the principles of the Constitution which carried us through the Revolution.  Surely it was; and to use the language of another Senator from a slave State, on a former occasion, these are the very principles on which the abolitionists plant themselves.  It was the principle that all men are born FREE AND EQUAL, that nerved the arm of our fathers in their contest for independence.  It was for the natural and inherent rights of man they contended.  It is a libel upon the Constitution to say that its object was not liberty, but slavery, for millions of the human race.