Neither party in Congress had, at that time, any sympathy with them or their cause.  The members of each party presented their petitions with great reluctance.  Nevertheless, small, and contemptible as the party then was, both of the great parties of the North dreaded them.  They felt, that though small, they were organized in reference to a subject which had a great and commanding influence over the northern mind.  Each party, on that account, feared to oppose their petitions, lest the opposite party should take advantage of the one who might do so, by favoring them.  The effect was, that both united in insisting that the petitions should be received, and that Congress should take jurisdiction over the subject.  To justify their course, they took the extraordinary ground, that Congress was bound to receive petitions on every subject, however objectionable they might be, and whether they had, or had not, jurisdiction over the subject.  Those views prevailed in the House of Representatives, and partially in the Senate; and thus the party succeeded in their first movements, in gaining what they proposed—­a position in Congress, from which agitation could be extended over the whole Union.  This was the commencement of the agitation, which has ever since continued, and which, as is now acknowledged, has endangered the Union itself.

As for myself, I believed at that early period, if the party who got up the petitions should succeed in getting Congress to take jurisdiction, that agitation would follow, and that it would in the end, if not arrested, destroy the Union.  I then so expressed myself in debate, and called upon both parties to take grounds against assuming jurisdiction; but in vain.  Had my voice been heeded, and had Congress refused to take jurisdiction, by the united votes of all parties, the agitation which followed would have been prevented, and the fanatical zeal that gave impulse to the agitation, and which has brought us to our present perilous condition, would have become extinguished, from the want of fuel to feed the flame.  That was the time for the North to have shown her devotion to the Union; but, unfortunately, both of the great parties of that section were so intent on obtaining or retaining party ascendency, that all other considerations were overlooked or forgotten.

What has since followed are but natural consequences.  With the success of their first movement, this small fanatical party began to acquire strength; and with that, to become an object of courtship to both the great parties.  The necessary consequence was, a further increase of power, and a gradual tainting of the opinions of both the other parties with their doctrines,until the infection has extended over both; and the great mass of the population of the North, who, whatever may be their opinion of the original abolition party, which still preserves its distinctive organization, hardly ever fail, when it comes to acting, to cooperate in carrying out their measures.  With