are opposed to slavery, and cannot live where it is permitted. These too you exclude. The laws and the policy of a slave state, will and must be adapted to the condition of slavery, and, without going into any particulars, it will be allowed, that they are in the highest degree offensive to those who are opposed to slavery. It seems to me, sir,-I may be pardoned for so far expressing an opinion upon the concerns of the slave-holding states-it seems to me, that the people of the south have a common interest with us in this question, not for themselves, perhaps, but for those who are equally dear to them. The cultivation by slaves requires large estates. They cannot be parcelled out and divided. In the course of time, and before very long, it will happen that the younger children of southern families must look elsewhere to find employment for their talents, and scope for their exertion. What better provision can they have, than free states, where they may fairly enter into competition with freemen, and every one find the level which his proper abilities entitle him to expect? The hint is sufficient, I venture to throw it out for the consideration of those whom it concerns.

But, independently of the objections to the extension, arising from the views thus presented by the opponents of the amendment, and independently of many much more deeply founded objections, which I forbear now to press, there are enough, of a very obvious kind, to settle the question conclusively. With the indulgence of the committee, 1 will touch upon some of them.

It will be remembered, that this is the first step beyond the Mississippi-the State of Louisiana is no exception, for there slavery existed to an extent which left no alternative -It is the last step, too, for this is the last stand that can be made. Compromise is forbidden by the principles contended for on both sides. Any compromise that would give slavery to Missouri is out of the question. It is, therefore, the final, irretrievable step, which can never be re

called, and must lead to an immeasurable spread of slavery over the country beyond the Mississippi. If any one faulter; if he be tempted by insinuations, or terrified by the apprehension of losing something desirable-if he find himself drawn aside by views to the little interests that are immediately about him-let him reflect upon the magnitude of the question, and he will be elevated above all such considerations. The eyes of the country are upon him; the interests of posterity are committed to his carelet him beware how he barters, not his own, but his children's birth-right, for a mess of pottage-The consciousness that we have done our duty, is a sure and never failing dependence. It will stand by us and support us through life, under every vicissitude of fortune, and in every change of circumstances. It sheds a steady and a cheering light, upon the future as well as the present, and is at once a grateful and a lasting reward.

Again, Sir, by increasing the market for slaves, you postpone and destroy the hope of extinguishing slavery by emancipation. It seems to me, that the reduction in value of slaves, however accomplished, is the only inducement that will ever effect an abolition of slavery. The multiplication of free states, will at the same time give room for emancipation, or, to speak more accurately, for those who are emancipated. This, I would respectfully suggest, is the only effectual plan of colonization-but it can never take effect while it is the interest of owners to pursue their slaves with so much avidity, or to pay such prices for them. Increase the market, and you keep up the value-increase the number of slave-holding states, and you destroy the possibility of emancipation, even if every part of the union should desire it. You extend, indefinitely, the formidable difficulties which already exist.

Nor does the mischief stop here. All liberal minds and all parts of the union, have with one voice agreed in the necessity of abolishing that detestable traffic in human

flesh, the slave trade—the foreign slave trade: But, reject the amendment on your table, admit Missouri without restriction, and you will inevitably introduce and establish a great inland domestic slave trade, not, it is true, with all the horrors of the middle passage, nor the cold blooded calculation upon the waste of human life in the seasoning, but still with many of the odious features, and some of the most cruel accompaniments of that hateful traffic. From Washington to St. Louis, may be a distance of one thousand miles. Through this great space, and even a much greater, you must witness the transportation of slaves, with the usual appendages of hand-cuffs and chains. The ties of domestic life will be violently rent assunder, and those whom nature has bound together, suffer all the pangs of an unnatural and cruel separation. Unfeeling force, stimulated by unfeeling avarice, will tear the parent from the child, and the child from the parent-the husband from the wife, and the wife from the husband. We have lately witnessed something of this sort, during the period of high prices. Gentlemen of the south, particularly those from Virginia, who speak of their slaves as a part of their family, would start at this-They would reject, with scorn and indignation, even a suggestion, that they were to furnish a market for the supply of slaves to the other states. I can well believe, that in families where the relation has long subsisted, there are feelings that would revolt at such a thought-feelings that have considerably moditied this severe condition, and grown out of the associations it has, in a long course of time, produced. But, can any one tell, what cupidity may win or necessity extort? No man is superior to the assaults of fortune; and, if he were, the stroke of death will surely come, and break down his paternal government, and, then, the slave dealer, whom he would have kicked from his inclosure, like a poisonous reptile, presents himself-to whom?-He cannot tell. Thoughts like these, have often, I doubt not, produced the liberation

of slaves. If gentlemen question our sincerity, let them consider at what period of life it is, that emancipation most frequently takes place. It is at that serious moment, when men sit down to settle their worldly concerns, and, as it were, to take their leave of the world. Then it is, by the last will, to take effect when their own control is ended, that owners restore their slaves to freedom, and, by what they certainly consider an act of justice, surrender them to themselves, rather than leave them to the disposal of they know not whom. Let gentlemen from the south reflect on this. The public sentiment, upon the subject of slavery, is every where improved, and still improving. It has already destroyed that monstrous inhumanity called the slave trade. I fear that such a measure, as is now proposed by the opponents of the restriction, would not merely check and retard its progress. I seriously fear that it may gradually work an entire change. The effects are not to be contemplated 'without the deepest anxiety.

The political aspect of the subject is not less alarming. The existence of this condition among us, continually endangers the peace and well being of the union, by the irritation and animosity it creates betwen neighbouring states. It weakens the nation while it is entire: And if ever a division should happen, can any one reflect without horror, upon the consequences that may be worked out of an extensively prevailing system of slavery? We are told, indeed, both in the house and out of it, to leave the matter to Providence. Those who tell us so, are nevertheless active and eager in the smallest of their own concerns, omitting nothing to secure success. Sir, we are endowed with faculties, that enable us to judge and to choose-to look before and after, however imperfectly. When these have been fairly and conscientiously exerted, we may then humbly submit the consequences, with a hope and belief, that, whatever they may be, they will not be imputed to us. The issue of our counsels, however well meant, is not in our hands. But, if for our own gratification, regardless

of all considerations of right or wrong, of good or evil, we hug a vicious indulgence to our bosom, until we find it turning to a venomous serpent, and threatening to sting us to the heart, with what rational or consoling expectation. can we call upon Providence to tear it away and save us from destruction.

It is time to come to a conclusion. I fear I have already trespassed too long. In the effort I have made to submit to the committee my views of this question, it has been impossible to escape entirely the influence of the sensation that pervades this house. Yet, I have no such apprehensions as have been expressed. The question is indeed an important one; but its importance is derived altogether from its connection with the extension, indefinitely, of negro slavery, over a land which I trust Providence has destined for the labour and the support of freemen. I have no fear that this question, much as it has agitated the country, is to produce any fatal division, or even to generate a new organization of parties. It is not a question upon which we ought to indulge unreasonable apprehensions, or yield to the counsels of fear. It concerns ages to come, and millions to be born. It is, as it were, a question of a new political creation, and it is for us, under Heaven, to say, what shall be its condition. If we impose the restriction, it will, I hope, be finally imposed. But, if hereafter it should be found right to remove it, and the state consent, we can remove it. Admit the state, without the restriction, the power is gone forever, and with it are forever gone all the efforts that have been made by the non slave holding states, to repress and limit the sphere of slavery, and enlarge and extend the blessings of freedom. With it, perhaps, is gone forever, the power of preventing the traffic in slaves, that inhuman and detestable traffic, so long a disgrace to christendom. In future, and no very distant times, convenience and profit, and necessity, may be found as available pleas as they formerly were, and for the luxury of slaves, we shall again involve ourselves in the sin of the trade. We