are those, or descendants of those, who emigrated
from the South; and I venture to say, that, in respect to those two
States, they are at this day settled by people of Southern origin in as
great a proportion as they are by people of Northern origin, according
to the general numbers and proportion of people, South and North. There
are as many people from the South, in proportion to the whole people of
the South, in those States, as there are from the North, in proportion
to the whole people of the North. There is, then, no exclusion of
Southern people; there is only the exclusion of a peculiar local law.
Neither in principle nor in fact is there any inequality.

The question now is, whether it is not competent to Congress, in the
exercise of a fair and just discretion, considering that there have been
five slave-holding States added to this Union out of foreign
acquisitions, and as yet only one free State, to prevent their further
increase. That is the question. I see no injustice in it. As to the
power of Congress, I have nothing to add to what I said the other day.
Congress has full power over the subject. It may establish any such
government, and any such laws, in the territories, as in its discretion
it may see fit. It is subject, of course, to the rules of justice and
propriety; but it is under no constitutional restraints.

I have said that I shall consent to no extension of the area of slavery
upon this continent, nor to any increase of slave representation in the
other house of Congress. I have now stated my reasons for my conduct and
my vote. We of the North have already gone, in this respect, far beyond
all that any Southern man could have expected, or did expect, at the
time of the adoption of the Constitution. I repeat the statement of the
fact of the creation of five new slave-holding States out of newly
acquired territory. We have done that which, if those who framed the
Constitution had foreseen, they never would have agreed to slave
representation. We have yielded thus far; and we have now in the House
of Representatives twenty persons voting upon this very question, and
upon all other questions, who are there only in virtue of the
representation of slaves.

Let me conclude, therefore, by remarking, that, while I am willing to
present this as showing my own judgment and position, in regard to this
case, and I beg it to be understood that I am speaking for no other than
myself, and while I am willing to