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Show 126 r ~ There was no . 1 test of his whole t c. chnructCI' t tO It was not the good man . k · this step. · nnsta ·c tn vary man thrust mto 0,·crhtkcn in a fault, the um ' :1 false position. It was true to llimsolf. It was It indicated the limit all he was capable of doing. d ssibility of his nature. an po . . I had followed, not led, New U to tlus hmc tC P N -tb in an earnest purpose to "1 dandtborot' Eng an ' . . f the people the principles 1 to the condtbon o app y . d 'tb our form of govern· rae idcntillc Wl of demoe Y . , l'f _ if tbat govern· d the very n::tbon s 1 c, mont, an t" n's life a lie in t be not n. sham' and tho na tO m.e n rrbc "preJU. d 'ce , the whim, the mono- ~ , htslory. . z· t took that direction, ia of his ccccntnc c ~en . . man . Fl't ith her everlasting smt m 'k oor ~ltss I t c w 11 o p b d . n professional honor d be felt oun ' cbnnccry • an . Thou b this bcncfi· d b and ad vocate lt. g to stan Y h h he never quite . not his own, t aug cent pohey ~asbe bad boon its eloquent exponent understood lt, . tb Senate on at Plymouth, at Springfield, and m. e w:tmsn:n.. 127 the Oregon question, and might fairly claim to have it 1'mputcd to him. 1'hcrc he stood for days dclibornting a foregone conclusion. Far awny was his natiro North, shnmk in his thought to tho smallest dimensions, no warmth in its bleak and frost·bound borders, save what came from city parlors and bank and counting·llOusc grates, - fanatical, countrified, contemptible. The sunny South em bosomed him, vast a.s China on a Chinese ffiOjl; and hot, as the reck of the agony and sweat of three million Slaves, came tho treacherous miasm of Slaveholders' praises and promises. Above him, in the awful !!ilence, was the lfigher Law, but having gone questioning it no higher than the top of the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, and getting no response, it was ns easy to argue it away, ns for Falstaff to reason down honor. Before him lay a golden opportunity to do a great deed, a fair fhme, nnd tho approbation of Gnd. On one side was a greedy interest speaking in tl1reats and bribes |