il the Union is restored and its enemies put
down. Let me ask you, gentlemen, who have so much to say about war,
whether you had not better leave that question where it is?

It has been assumed, and very often stated here, that the present
Constitution gives the right to the Southern slave owner to take his
negroes into any of the Territories of the United States, and hold
them there as slaves. I think it would be well for you not to act so
entirely upon that assumption. A different view prevails quite
extensively at the North. It will be a long time before that view is
changed.

Now, you gentlemen of the South propose to restore the Missouri
Compromise line. To induce us to adopt it, you say that the territory
south of it is a barren, worthless desert--that slavery can never
obtain a substantial foothold there. Why, then, do you make the
subject one of so much importance? Why do you risk all the calamities
of civil war and a disruption of the Union for such a poor reward? We
should distrust all your statements, we should disbelieve all your
professions of patriotism, if we could for a moment credit the
assertion that you would break up the Union on such a worthless
pretext.

You ring the changes in our ears upon the decision of the Supreme
Court in your favor. Let me tell you plainly that there is no section
of the Union in which the decisions of that court have been so fully
and fairly respected and observed as in the free States of the North.
With that you should be satisfied.

You are in trouble; that is evident. Your troubles have been caused by
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. That, again, was your work, not
ours. We opposed the repeal to the end. You had the power and you
carried it. Now the North is indifferent about the restoration of that
compromise; but if that will satisfy you, restore the _status quo_,
and the North will stand by you. But you must not expect now, that the
North will do any thing better for you than to extend the provisions
of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean.

Mr. CARRUTHERS:--The gentleman from New York who has last addressed
the Conference, appeals to us to accept the amendment now proposed,
upon the grounds of justice and equity. What is the present state of
the case? We claim the right to go into all the Territories with our
southern property. The Supreme Court has confirmed this right to us.
With this advantage in our favor, we have met here to compromise. What