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Show 250 TliE MIS~OULU QUESTION. my duty to show on this respectable floor, anrl that I shall be as short a- the nature of the subject will permit, and completely moderate. Intleed, in qncstions of this importance, moderation appears to me to be indi ·pen able to the discovery of truth. I, therefor , lnm nt cxtr mely that so much warmth has been unn ece~. arily excit ed, and shall, iu the remarks I may make, studiou.' ly do, what I conceive the decorum of debate ought to enjoin upon every wcmbcr. At the lime I left, or sallcd from the city I here repre-sent, scarcely a word was said of the Misso uri qne tion; no man there ever supposed that one of such magnitude was before you. I, therefo re, have, si nee the sc riou. aHpcct this subject ha::; assumed, received nnm rous inquiries on it, a.nd wishc · to know my opinion ns to the cxtcu t a11d consequences of it. I have candidly replied, thnt, so far as respects the regaining an nsccndcncy on uoth the floors of Congress; of regaining the posses ion of the honors and offices of our government; and of, through this men ure, laying the foundation of forever securing their u cendency, and the power of the government, the Bn tern and N orLhcrn States had a high and deep interest. 'fhat, so far as rc peeLs the rctainiug the honors and offices and the powers of the government, and the preventing the establishment of principles to interfere with them, the Southern and Western States had cqnul interest with the N orthcrn. But that, when we con idcr to what lengths the right of Congress to touch the question of slavery at all might reach, it became one, indeed, of tremendous import. Among the rea::;ons which have induced me to rise, one is to expre. s my surprise. Surprise, did I say? I ought rather to have said, my extreme n:toni luncnt, at the assertion I hcaru uwdc ou both Onors of Cougrc s, thn.t, in forming the Constitution of tho Unilc(l States, and particularly that part of it which respects the rcprc~entation on this TilE MISSOURI QU~~1'IO~. 251 fioor, the N orthcrn and Eastern States, or, as they aro now called, the non-slavcholding States, have made a great concession to the Southern, in granting them a representationof three-fifths of their slaves ; that they saw the conccs. ion was a very great and important one at Lhc time, but tlHti lhcy had no idea it would so soon have proved itself of such consequence; that it would so soon have proved it elf to be by far the most important conecs ion that had bcc11 made. 'rhcy say, that it was wrnng from from them by their affection to the Union, and their wiHh to preserve iL from dissolution or di.-nuiou ; that they had, for a long time, lamented they had made iL; and that if it was to do over, no earthly COIL i<lcrution should ngain tempt them to agree to so unequal and so ruiuous n compromise. By this, I suppose, lVIr. Chairman, is meant that they could have had 110 idea that the W esLcm and Southern States would have grown wiLh the rapidity they have, and filled so many of the scats in this Jiousc : in other words, that they would so soon have torn the sceptre from the Bast. It was, sir, for the purpo. c of correcting this great and unpardonable error; unpardonable, Lccn.usc it is a wilful one, and the error of it is well-known to the ablest of those who make it; of denying the a. crtion, anu proving that the contrary is tho fact, and that the co11cession, on that occasion, was from the SouLbcrn and not the Northern States, that, among others, I have risen. It is of the greatest consequence that the proof I am about to give should be laiJ before this nation; for, as the inequality of representation is the great ground on which the N orthcrn anrl Eastern States have always, and now more particularly and forcibly than ever, raised all their complaints on this subject, if I can show and prove that they have not even a shadow of right to make pretenses or complaints; that they arc n.s fully rcprcscnlecl as they onght to be; while we, the Svulhcrn members, arc unjustly de- |