The state of things in this District has one peculiar
feature; being under the supreme local government of Congress, it
presents almost the only tangible point for the political efforts of
those hostile to slavery. Against slavery in any but their own States,
the abolitionists have neither the power nor the wish to exert that
constitutional interference which they rightfully employ in the States
of which they are citizens; but with respect to the District of
Columbia, they are, in common with the whole republic, responsible for
the exercise of political influence for the abolition of slavery within
its limits. Hence this is the grand point of attack. They have
experienced a succession of repulses, but their eventual success is
certain; the political influence of the slave-holding interest, which is
now paramount, and which controls and dictates the entire policy of the
general Government will be destroyed. Then will the abolition of
American slavery be speedily consummated.
[Footnote A: "Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia, In the
legislature of this State, in 1833, Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared
that Virginia had been converted into 'one grand menagerie, where men
are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles.
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