All this can be done, nay, will be done. But let me not beguile you. The ancient price of Liberty was vigilance; and this price has not diminished of late years, especially when surrounded by men accustomed to power and stimulated by rage. Already the news has reached us of combinations to consolidate the Opposition,--as we read that of old two inveterate parties among the Jews were reconciled. “The same day,” writes the sacred historian, “Pilate and Herod were made friends together; for before they were at enmity between themselves.” This example is too kindred not to be adopted. Already, also, we hear of devices at a distance, and even near at home, to distract our friends, by producing distrust either of our principles or of our candidate. At one time it is said that the principle of Prohibition is a mistake,--and then again, by natural consequence, that our candidate is not sufficiently moderate. Fellow-citizens, hearken not to any of these things. Keep the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories as the fixed and irreversible purpose of your hearts, and insist that it shall be established by Congress; for without Congress it may not be established. Old Cato procured a decree of the Roman Senate that no king should ever enter Rome, saying that “a king is a carnivorous animal.” A similar decree must be adopted by Congress against an animal more carnivorous than king. In upholding this paramount necessity, I utter nothing new. During the debate on the Nebraska Bill, my eminent colleague at that time in the Senate, Mr. Everett, now candidate for the Vice-Presidency, while approving the Prohibition, allowed himself to disparage its importance. With the convictions which are mine, I felt it my duty to reply, kindly, but most strenuously. After exhibiting the efficacy of the Prohibition, I said:-- “Surely this cannot be treated lightly. But I am unwilling to measure the exigency of the Prohibition by the number of persons, whether many or few, whom it may protect. Human rights, whether in a multitude or the solitary individual, are entitled to equal and unhesitating support. In this spirit, the flag of our country only recently became the impenetrable panoply of a homeless wanderer who claimed its protection in a distant sea; and, in this spirit, I am constrained to declare that there is no place accessible to human avarice or human lust or human force, whether the lowest valley or the loftiest mountain-top, whether the broad flower-spangled prairies or the snowy caps of the Rocky Mountains, where the Prohibition of Slavery, like the Commandments of the Decalogue, should not go.”[173]