eady to accord to her, fairly and fully.

By the spirit of the compact of our fathers is meant, the Constitution
as they understood it, and as the people of that day understood it.
And this is what is meant by the "landmarks of the fathers." All admit
that the Federal Government should be administered now, as it was
administered by its framers. This is what gentlemen from the slave
States, in giving utterance to their intense devotion to the Union,
say.

Then, what is the Constitution, as understood by those who framed it?
What does it mean when interpreted by the light of the policy of 1787?
and what is the spirit of the compact which they made? This is the
question we are called to consider. In my remarks I do not mean to
wander from it.

So far as the Constitution touches the question out of which the
present unhappy controversy has arisen, I say it means this: That
slavery, as it existed or might exist within the limits of the
original States, should not be interfered with to the injury of the
lawful rights of slaveholders under State authority; on the contrary,
that it should have the right of recaption, and a qualified
protection; but that outside of those limits, otherwise than in this
right of recaption, it should never exist, neither in the territories
nor in the new States.

And let me say here, that when I speak of the original States, I mean
the territory of those States as then bounded. Alabama and Mississippi
belonged to Georgia, Tennessee belonged to North Carolina, Kentucky
belonged to Virginia, Vermont belonged to New York, and Maine belonged
to Massachusetts, and were parts of the thirteen original States, at
the time the Constitution was adopted. When, therefore, I speak of
territory outside the original States, I do not refer to territory
within any of the States named.

Mr. BOUTWELL:--I trust my colleague does not claim to speak for
Massachusetts, when he denies the right of any State of this Union to
establish and maintain slavery within its jurisdiction, or to prohibit
it altogether, according to its discretion. This right was reserved to
the States; and States in this Union, whether original or new, stand
on a footing of perfect equality.

Mr. GOODRICH:--I certainly do not claim to speak for Massachusetts,
though I believe the opinion of the great majority of her people
agrees with my own on this subject. However, what I claim is, that
Ohio and the other States of the northwestern territo