hat the influence of Northern men in the public counsels would
endanger the relation of master and slave. For myself, I claim no other
merit than that this gross and enormous injustice towards the whole
North has not wrought upon me to change my opinions or my political
conduct. I hope I am above violating my principles, even under the smart
of injury and false imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved
reproach, whatever pain I may experience from them, will not induce me,
I trust, to overstep the limits of constitutional duty, or to encroach
on the rights of others. The domestic slavery of the Southern States I
leave where I find it,--in the hands of their own governments. It is
their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which
the magnitude of that population has had in the distribution of power
under this Federal government. We know, Sir, that the representation of
the States in the other house is not equal. We know that great advantage
in that respect is enjoyed by the slave-holding States; and we know,
too, that the intended equivalent for that advantage, that is to say,
the imposition of direct taxes in the same ratio, has become merely
nominal, the habit of the government being almost invariably to collect
its revenue from other sources and in other modes. Nevertheless, I do
not complain; nor would I countenance any movement to alter this
arrangement of representation. It is the original bargain, the compact;
let it stand; let the advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The Union itself
is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for changing its
original basis. I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as
it is. But I am resolved not to submit in silence to accusations, either
against myself individually or against the North, wholly unfounded and
unjust,--accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade the
constitutional compact, and to extend the power of the government over
the internal laws and domestic condition of the States. All such
accusations, wherever and whenever made, all insinuations of the
existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be groundless and
injurious. And we must confide in Southern gentlemen themselves; we must
trust to those whose integrity of heart and magnanimity of feeling will
lead them to a desire to maintain and disseminate truth, and who possess
the means of its diffusion with the Southern public; we must leave it to
them to dis