ng all of them there is not a man who holds, nor
is there any man who can hold, any office in the gift of the United
States, or of this State, or of any other State, who does not bind
himself, by the solemn obligation of an oath, to support the
Constitution of the United States. Well, is he to tamper with that? Is
he to palter? Gentlemen, our political duties are as much matters of
conscience as any other duties; our sacred domestic ties, our most
endearing social relations, are no more the subjects for conscientious
consideration and conscientious discharge, than the duties we enter upon
under the Constitution of the United States. The bonds of political
brotherhood, which hold us together from Maine to Georgia, rest upon the
same principles of obligation as those of domestic and social life.

Now, Gentlemen, that is the plain story of the Constitution of the
United States, on the question of slavery. I contend, and have always
contended, that, after the adoption of the Constitution, any measure of
the government calculated to bring more slave territory into the United
States was beyond the power of the Constitution, and against its
provisions. That is my opinion, and it always has been my opinion. It
was inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, or thought
to be so, in Mr. Jefferson's time, to attach Louisiana to the United
States. A treaty with France was made for that purpose. Mr. Jefferson's
opinion at that moment was, that an alteration of the Constitution was
necessary to enable it to be done. In consequence of considerations to
which I need not now refer, that opinion was abandoned, and Louisiana
was admitted by law, without any provision in, or alteration of, the
Constitution. At that time I was too young to hold any office, or take
any share in the political affairs of the country. Louisiana was
admitted as a slave State, and became entitled to her representation in
Congress on the principle of a mixed basis. Florida was afterwards
admitted. Then, too, I was out of Congress. I had formerly been a
member, but had ceased to be so. I had nothing to do with the Florida
treaty, or the admission of Florida. My opinion remains unchanged, that
it was not within the original scope or design of the Constitution to
admit new States out of foreign territory; and, for one, whatever may be
said at the Syracuse Convention, or at any other assemblage of insane
persons, I never would consent, and never have conse