Conflict of Northern and Southern Theories of Man and Society / Great Speech, Delivered in New York City

The speaker argues that the dispute over slavery transcends a regional plantation issue and poses a national moral and political crisis rooted in competing theories of human nature and society. He contrasts a Northern theory emphasizing personal freedom, education, democratic institutions, and moral responsibility with a Southern theory that supports authoritarian social order and political power derived from slaveholding. The conflict, he contends, will determine whether republican institutions fulfill their ideals or decline, calling for the North, and New England in particular, to revive founding principles and assert moral and civic leadership as part of a providential struggle over the nation's character.