offer it to the whole world as my own
justification, I rest on these propositions: First, That when this
Constitution was adopted, nobody looked for any new acquisition of
territory to be formed into slave-holding States. Secondly, That the
principles of the Constitution prohibited, and were intended to
prohibit, and should be construed to prohibit, all interference of the
general government with slavery as it existed and as it still exists in
the States. And then, looking to the operation of these new
acquisitions, which have in this great degree had the effect of
strengthening that interest in the South by the addition of these five
States, I feel that there is nothing unjust, nothing of which any honest
man can complain, if he is intelligent, and I feel that there is nothing
with which the civilized world, if they take notice of so humble a
person as myself, will reproach me, when I say, as I said the other day,
that I have made up my mind, for one, that under no circumstances will I
consent to the further extension of the area of slavery in the United
States, or to the further increase of slave representation in the House
of Representatives.

[Footnote 1: Mr. Benton.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. Berrien.]

[Footnote 3: Mr. Calhoun.]

SPEECH AT MARSHFIELD.

DELIVERED AT A MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF MARSHFIELD, MASS., ON THE 1ST
OF SEPTEMBER, 1848.

[The following correspondence explains the occasion of the meeting at
Marshfield, at which the following speech was delivered.

"_Marshfield, Mass., Aug. 2, 1848._

"HON. DANIEL WEBSTER:--

"Dear Sir,--The undersigned, Whigs and fellow-citizens of yours, are
desirous of seeing and conferring with you on the subject of our
national policy, and of hearing your opinions freely expressed thereon.
We look anxiously on the present aspect of public affairs, and on the
position in which the Whig party, and especially Northern Whigs, are now
placed. We should be grieved indeed to see General Cass--so decided an
opponent of all those measures which we think essential to the honor and
interests of the country and the prosperity of all classes--elected to
the chief magistracy. On the other hand, it is not to be concealed, that
there is much discontent with the nomination made by the late
Philadelphia Convention, of a Southern man, a military man, fresh from
bloody fields, and known only by his sword, as a Whig candidate for the
Presidency.

"So far as is in our humble a