a
matter to be proved; and therefore, if individuals go into any part of
the earth, it is to be proved that they are not freemen, or else the
presumption is that they are.

Now our friends seem to think that an inequality arises from restraining
them from going into the territories, unless there be a law provided
which shall protect their ownership in persons. The assertion is, that
we create an inequality. Is there nothing to be said on the other side
in relation to inequality? Sir, from the date of this Constitution, and
in the counsels that formed and established this Constitution, and I
suppose in all men's judgment since, it is received as a settled truth,
that slave labor and free labor do not exist well together. I have
before me a declaration of Mr. Mason, in the Convention that formed the
Constitution, to that effect. Mr. Mason, as is well known, was a
distinguished member from Virginia. He says that the objection to slave
labor is, that it puts free white labor in disrepute; that it causes
labor to be regarded as derogatory to the character of the free white
man, and that the free white man despises to work, to use his
expression, where slaves are employed. This is a matter of great
interest to the free States, if it be true, as to a great extent it
certainly is, that wherever slave labor prevails free white labor is
excluded or discouraged. I agree that slave labor does not necessarily
exclude free labor totally. There is free white labor in Virginia,
Tennessee, and other States, where most of the labor is done by slaves.
But it necessarily loses something of its respectability, by the side
of, and when associated with, slave labor. Wherever labor is mainly
performed by slaves, it is regarded as degrading to freemen. The freemen
of the North, therefore, have a deep interest in keeping labor free,
exclusively free, in the new territories.

But, Sir, let us look further into this alleged inequality. There is no
pretence that Southern people may not go into territory which shall be
subject to the Ordinance of 1787. The only restraint is, that they shall
not carry slaves thither, and continue that relation. They say this
shuts them altogether out. Why, Sir, there can be nothing more
inaccurate in point of fact than this statement. I understand that one
half the people who settled Illinois are people, or descendants of
people, who came from the Southern States. And I suppose that one third
of the people of Ohio