Mr. President, I shall not occupy the time of the Senate. I dislike to
be forced to repel these attacks upon myself, which seem to be repeated
on every occasion. It appears that gentlemen on the other side of the
chamber think they would not be doing justice to their cause if they did
not make myself a personal object of bitter denunciation and malignity.
I hope that the debate on this bill may be brought to a close at as
early a day as possible. I shall do no more in these side discussions
than vindicate myself and repel unjust attacks, but I shall ask the
Senate to permit me to close the debate, when it shall close, in a calm,
kind summary of the whole question, avoiding personalities.
MR. SUMNER: Mr. President, To the Senator from Illinois, I should
willingly leave the privilege of the common scold--the last word; but I
will not leave to him, in any discussion with me, the last argument, or
the last semblance of it. He has crowned the audacity of this debate by
venturing to rise here and calumniate me. He said that I came here, took
an oath to support the Constitution, and yet determined not to support a
particular clause in that Constitution. To that statement I give, to his
face, the flattest denial. When it was made on a former occasion on this
floor by the absent Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
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