ous; at the same time, of promoting
his own. There are, no doubt, hypocrites of humanity as well as of
religion; men with cold hearts and warm professions, trading upon
benevolence, and using justice and virtue only as stakes upon the turn
of a card or the cast of a die. But this sort of profligacy belongs to a
state of society more deeply corrupted than ours. Such characters are
rare among us. Many of our public men have principles too pliable to
popular impulse, but few are deliberately dishonest; and there is not a
man in the Union of purer integrity than Rufus King.

"The most remarkable circumstance in the history of the final decision
of the Missouri question is that it was ultimately carried against the
opinions, wishes, and interests, of the free states, by the votes of
their own members. They had a decided majority in both houses of
Congress, but lost the vote by disunion among themselves. The
slaveholders clung together, without losing one vote. Many of them, and
almost all the Virginians, held out to the last, even against
compromise. The cause of the closer union on the slave side is that the
question affected the individual interest of every slaveholding member,
and of almost every one of his constituents. On the other side,
individual interests were not implicated in the decision at all. The
impulses were purely republican principle and the rights of human
nature. The struggle for political power, and geographical jealousy, may
fairly be supposed to have operated equally on both sides. The result
affords an illustration of the remark, how much more keen and powerful
the impulse is of personal interest than is that of any general
consideration of benevolence and humanity."

The compromise, by which Missouri was admitted into the Union, did not
finally settle the question in. Congress. At the next session it
reappeared, in consequence of the insertion into the constitution of
Missouri of an article declaring it to be the duty of the Legislature to
pass laws prohibiting free negroes and persons of color from coming into
Missouri; which declaration was directly repugnant to that article in
the constitution of the United States which provides that the citizens
of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of
citizens of the other states. The only mode of getting out of this
difficulty, said Mr. Adams, was "for Congress to pass a resolution
declaring the State of Missouri to be admitted from