miles, and all its tributaries. The Missouri river and
its tributaries are nearly double the length of the Mississippi and its
branches. Missouri by her position dominates the whole valley of her
great river, and commands Kansas and Western Iowa, and Nebraska, and
Colorado, Dacotah and New Mexico. If Missouri had joined the Southern
confederacy, and its power had ever been established, she would have
forced with her all the vast region to which we have referred,
containing, including Missouri, an area equal to twenty States of the
size of Ohio. To separate Missouri forever from the proposed Southern
confederacy, is to render the permanent establishment of such a
government impossible. It not only severs Missouri from them, but all
the vast region identified with the destiny of that great State. Secure
Missouri permanently and cordially to the Union, and the rebellion is
doomed to certain overthrow. With the fall of slavery in Missouri by her
consent, and her cordial cooperation and sympathy with the North and
Northwest, the days of the rebellion are numbered. With Missouri as a
Free State, Arkansas, adjacent, cannot retain the institution. Such a
result, aided by victories, and the reestablishment of our finances,
would soon give full effect to the edict of emancipation in Arkansas,
and Louisiana would soon follow. With Missouri as a Free State by her
consent, and her cordial cooperation and sympathy, slavery would soon
disappear from the whole region west of the Mississippi, and Louisiana
cordially be reunited to the Republic. With such a result, holding New
Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi and all the region west of that
great stream, how could Tennessee or Mississippi remain in the Southern
confederacy? The truth is, Missouri is the pivot upon which the
rebellion turns. Had she gone with the South, and given to its cause a
cordial support, it would have been difficult to subdue the rebellion.
That she has gone with the Union is a momentous fact, and demands for
her our heartfelt gratitude. I have shown, it is true, how greatly it is
the interest of Missouri to become a Free State; but it is still more
the interest of the nation to secure this great result. Give her what is
needed to render emancipation certain, and we shall have secured the
perpetuity of the Union. Missouri had no participation in introducing
African slaves into this continent. The slaves that cultivate her soil
are the descendants of those wh