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The Way Lovejoy Puts It.
During the course of a running discussion in the House of Representatives the other day, Mr. Lovejoy said:
I have listened to a good deal of abuse from the other side. I have been called a fanatic for twenty years and more. When a person is hard pushed for argument, he usually takes to abuse and, therefore, I do not mind it much. But I want to notice one thing which the member from Maryland said. He said there are two classes equally detestable in this country — the anti-slavery men and the rebels. I have no doubt he thinks so. I have heard the same sentiment uttered here and in the Senate. At least I have read it after it was uttered and published. A petulant old man in the other wing of the Capitol is uttering this kind of sentiment all the while. He wants to hang the Greeleys and the Cheevers side by side with secessionists and rebels. If it were not for the anti-slavery men of the country, the soldiers, who are risking and laying down their lives, men whose sentiments are represented by the very individuals whom that Senator says he wants to hang — and I judge that this gentleman's (Mr. Crisfield's) sympathies are with him — neither the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Mallory), nor the one from Maryland, would have a home to-day. — The gentleman could not go home and live in peace if it had not been for these very anti-slavery men, those fanatics, my neighbors, of whom we the other day buried forty in one grave, every one of whom, fanatics as they were, fought and lost their lives in defending Kentucky, in defending the gentleman's home while he was calling me a fanatic.
We caused it! We are the source of this war equally with these rebels! Just what a wicked king of the olden times said to the prophet who had foretold the judgments that would come upon the land in consequence of the sins of the reigning family. The prophet met the king riding in his carriage, lordly and pompous — a high-toned, chivalrous gentleman I presume. The monarch looked out upon the prophet as he walked along, and said, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" The prophet turned, and pointing his finger at the crowned sinner, replied "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalam."
Sir, it is not I, but slavery. There will be no peace, there can be no peace, until slavery is placed where the public mind will rest in the assurance that it is in process of ultimate extinction.