d that it would be
dangerous to adopt it.

We do not subscribe to the doctrine that the Constitution expressly
affirms the right of property in slaves. We may be wrong; it may be a
mere misapprehension. But with their present opinions, the people of
the North will hesitate long before they make this express affirmation
a part of the organic _law_.

Again; if the Constitution affirms this right, and was understood to
do so by its framers, what was the need of the rendition clause? The
Constitution is the supreme law in the free States as well as in the
slave States. Under this construction the rights of the owner could
have been enforced like any other right of property in the courts of
law, without any provision for the rendition of slaves.

These are some of the opinions that are entertained at the North. They
may be right or they may be wrong, but they have been deliberately
adopted, and they prevail extensively. They cannot be changed by our
action here. In all we do they must be respected. They are
_constitutionally_ entertained.

This proposition to carry slavery into the Territories, opens the
discussion of the merits of that institution. Gentlemen say they wish
to stop the discussion; that there has been too much of it already;
that such a discussion would be especially unfortunate now. I do not
propose to enter upon it here. But I desire to know in what manner you
could more effectually invite discussion than by placing your proposed
amendments before the people?

You must not forget that the people of the North believe slavery is
both a moral and a political evil. They recognize the right of the
States to have it, to regulate it as they please, without
interference, direct or indirect; but when it is proposed to extend it
into territory where it did not before exist, it becomes a political
question, in which they are interested, in which they have a right to
interfere, and in which they will interfere. Such an attempt they
consider it their duty to resist by all constitutional means.

The establishing of slavery in the Territories is the practical
exclusion of free labor in them. True, there is no direct provision
for the exclusion of free labor in your propositions, but such will
certainly be their effect. I appeal to gentlemen from the South to say
from their own experience whether free labor _can_ be employed side by
side with slave labor. This presents another consideration. You of the
South ask us