t the virtues of the master are refined
and exalted by the degradation of the slave; while at the same time
they vent execrations upon the slave-trade, curse Britain for having
given them slaves, burn at the stake negroes convicted of crimes for
the terror of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very
mention of human rights as applicable to men of color. The impression
produced upon my mind by the progress of this discussion is that the
bargain between freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of
the United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent
with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be justified;
cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging
the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the
master; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves
are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured
or restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented
themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a
double share of representation.

The consequence has been that this slave representation has governed
the Union. Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravened as a
wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at night he has
divided the spoil. It would be no difficult matter to prove, by
reviewing the history of the Union under this Constitution, that
almost everything which has contributed to the honor and welfare of
the nation has been accomplished in despite of them or forced upon
them, and that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the
blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to them. I
have favored this Missouri compromise, believing it to be all that
could be effected under the present Constitution, and from extreme
unwillingness to put the Union at hazard. But perhaps it would have
been a wiser as well as a bolder course to have persisted in the
restriction upon Missouri, till it should have terminated in a
convention of the States to amend and revise the Constitution. This
would have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States
unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to effect,
namely, that of rallying to their standard the other States by the
universal emancipation of their slaves. If the Union must be
dissolved, slavery is precisely the question upon which it ought to
break. For the present, however, t