setts was strongly in favor of the
exclusion of slavery from the new States, and utterly averse to any
compromise. A meeting was held in the state-house at Boston, and a
committee was appointed to draft a memorial to Congress, on the subject of
the prohibition of slavery in the territories. This memorial,--which was
afterwards adopted,--was drawn by Mr. Webster, as chairman of the
committee. It set forth, first, the belief of its signers that Congress had
the constitutional power "to make such a prohibition a condition on the
admission of a new State into the Union, and that it is just and proper
that they should exercise that power." Then came an argument on the
constitutional question, and then the reasons for the exercise of the power
as a general policy. The first point was that it would prevent further
inequality of representation, such as existed under the Constitution in
the old States, but which could not be increased without danger. The next
argument went straight to the merits of the question, as involved in
slavery as a system. After pointing out the value of the ordinance of 1787
to the Northwest, the memorial continued:--

"We appeal to the justice and the wisdom of the national councils
to prevent the further progress of a great and serious evil. We
appeal to those who look forward to the remote consequences of
their measures, and who cannot balance a temporary or trifling
convenience, if there were such, against a permanent growing and
desolating evil.

"... The Missouri territory is a new country. If its extensive and
fertile fields shall be opened as a market for slaves, the
government will seem to become a party to a traffic, which in so
many acts, through so many years, it has denounced as impolitic,
unchristian, and inhuman.... The laws of the United States have
denounced heavy penalties against the traffic in slaves, because
such traffic is deemed unjust and inhuman. We appeal to the spirit
of these laws; we appeal to this justice and humanity; we ask
whether they ought not to operate, on the present occasion, with
all their force? We have a strong feeling of the injustice of any
toleration of slavery. Circumstances have entailed it on a portion
of our community, which cannot be immediately relieved from it
without consequences more injurious than the suffering of the evil.
But to permit it in a new