issouri. The last of the
series excluded the South from the whole of Oregon Territory. All these,
in the slang of the day, were what are called slave territories,' and
not free soil; that is, territories belonging to slaveholding powers and
open to the emigration of masters with their slaves. By these
several Acts the South was excluded from one million two hundred and
thirty-eight thousand and twenty-five square miles--an extent of country
considerably exceeding the entire valley of the Mississippi. To the
South was left the portion of the Territory of Louisiana lying south of
36 deg. 30', and the portion north of it included in the State of Missouri,
with the portion lying south of 36 deg. 30' including the States of
Louisiana and Arkansas, and the territory lying west of the latter, and
south of 36 deg. 30', called the Indian country. These, with the Territory
of Florida, now the State, make, in the whole, two hundred and
eighty-three thousand five hundred and three square miles. To this must
be added the territory acquired with Texas. If the whole should be added
to the southern section it would make an increase of three hundred and
twenty-five thousand five hundred and twenty, which would make the whole
left to the South six hundred and nine thousand and twenty-three. But a
large part of Texas is still in contest between the two sections, which
leaves it uncertain what will be the real extent of the proportion of
territory that may be left to the South.

I have not included the territory recently acquired by the treaty with
Mexico. The North is making the most strenuous efforts to appropriate
the whole to herself, by excluding the South from every foot of it. If
she should succeed, it will add to that from which the South has already
been excluded, 526,078 square miles, and would increase the whole which
the North has appropriated to herself, to 1,764,023, not including the
portion that she may succeed in excluding us from in Texas. To sum up
the whole, the United States, since they declared their independence,
have acquired 2,373,046 square miles of territory, from which the North
will have excluded the South, if she should succeed in monopolizing the
newly acquired territories, about three fourths of the whole, leaving to
the South but about one fourth.

Such is the first and great cause that has destroyed the equilibrium
between the two sections in the Government.

The next is the system of revenue and disburs