tory
not included in the original government of the Union. Josiah Quincy
of Massachusetts made a violent speech against it, declaring that
if Louisiana were admitted, "the bonds of this Union are virtually
dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their
moral obligations; and that, as it will be right of all, so it will
be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation, amicably
if they can, violently if they must." Mr. Quincy was disquieted
at the mere thought of extending the Union beyond its original
limits. He had "heard with alarm that six States might grow up
beyond the Mississippi, and that the mouth of the Ohio might be
east of the centre of a contemplated empire." He declared that
"it was not for these men that our fathers fought, not for them
that the Constitution was adopted. Our fathers were not madmen:
they had not taken degrees at the hospital of idiocy." He maintained
with great vehemence that there was "no authority to throw the
rights and liberties of this people into 'hotchpot' with the wild
men of the Missouri, nor with the mixed, though more respectable,
race of Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans who bask on the sands in the
mouth of the Mississippi." Mr. Quincy's sentiments were far more
radical than those held by the mass of Northern or New-England
people, yet there was undoubtedly a strong opposition to the
admission of Louisiana. Many Northern men had opposed the purchase
of the territory from France, believing it to be unconstitutional;
and they dreaded the introduction of senators and representatives
from territory which they considered foreign. Nevertheless the
bill admitting the State passed the House by a vote of two-thirds
of the members. The opposition was wholly from the North, and
largely from New England. The contest was confined to Congress--
the issue failing to excite popular interest. A majority of the
people, both North and South, were convinced that the ownership of
the mouth of the Mississippi was of inestimable value to the Union,
and that it could not be permanently secured except by admitting
as a State the territory which included and controlled it. This
conclusion was strengthened by the near approach of war with Great
Britain, soon after formally declared. The advantage of a loyal
and devoted population at New Orleans, identified in interest and
in sympathy with the government, was too evident to need argument.
If the weight of reason had