one,--if the
Constitution and the Union cannot be preserved and effectually
maintained without these new guarantees for slavery, then the Union is
not worth preserving.

The people of the North have always submitted to the decisions of the
properly constituted powers. This obedience has been unpleasant
enough when they thought those powers were exercised for sectional
purposes; but it has always been implicitly yielded. I am ready, even
now, to go home and say that, by the decision of the Supreme Court,
slavery exists in all the Territories of the United States. We submit
to the decision, and accept its consequences. But, in view of all the
circumstances attending that decision, was it quite fair, was it quite
generous, for the gentleman from Maryland to say that under it, by the
adoption of these propositions, the South was giving up everything, the
North giving up nothing? Does he suppose the South is yielding the
point in relation to any territory which, by any probability, would
become slave territory? Something more than the decision of the
Supreme Court is necessary to establish slavery anywhere. The decision
may give the _right_ to establish it: other influences must control
the question of its actual establishment.

I am opposed, further, to any restrictions on the acquisition of
territory. They are unnecessary. The time may come when they would
be troublesome. We may want the Canadas. The time may come when the
Canadas may wish to unite with us. Shall we tie up our hands so that
we cannot receive them, or make it forever your interest to oppose
their annexation? Such a restriction would be, by the common consent
of the people, disregarded.

There are seven States out of the Union already. They have organized
what they claim is an independent government. They are not to be
coerced back, you say. Are the prospects very favorable that they will
return of their own accord? But _they_ will annex territory. They are
already looking to Mexico. If left to themselves, they would annex her
and all her neighbors, and we should lose our highway to the Pacific
coast. They would acquire it, and to us it would be lost forever.

The North will consider well before she consents to this, before she
even permits it. Ever since 1820, we have pursued, in this respect,
a uniform policy. The North will hesitate long, before, by accepting
the condition you propose, she deprives the nation of the valuable
p