on of the weight of power to the West, were subjects
of great and just jealousy to some of the best patriots in the Northern
and Eastern States. Suppose, then, that it had been distinctly foreseen
that, in addition to the effect of this weight, the whole population of
a world beyond the Mississippi was to be brought into this and the other
branch of the Legislature, to form our laws, control our rights, and
decide our destiny. Sir, can it be pretended that the patriots of that
day would for one moment have listened to it? They were not madmen. They
had not taken degrees at the hospital of idiocy. They knew the nature of
man, and the effect of his combinations in political societies. They
knew that when the weight of particular sections of a confederacy was
greatly unequal, the resulting power would be abused; that it was not in
the nature of man to exercise it with moderation. The very extravagance
of the intended use is a conclusive evidence against the possibility of
the grant of such a power as is here proposed. Why, sir, I have already
heard of six States, and some say there will be, at no great distance of
time, more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will be far to
the east of the centre of the contemplated empire. If the bill is
passed, the principle is recognized. All the rest are mere questions of
expediency. It is impossible such a power could be granted. It was not
for these men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this
Constitution was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and
liberties and property of this people into "hotch-pot" with the wild men
on the Missouri, nor with the mixed, though more respectable, race of
Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans, who bask on the sands in the mouth of the
Mississippi. I make no objection to these from their want of moral
qualities or political light. The inhabitants of New Orleans are, I
suppose, like those of all other countries, some good, some bad, some
indifferent.* * *

I will add only a few words, in relation to the moral and political
consequences of usurping this power. I have said that it would be a
virtual dissolution of the Union; and gentlemen express great
sensibility at the expression. But the true source of terror is not the
declaration I have made, but the deed you propose. Is there a moral
principle of public law better settled, or more conformable to the
plainest suggestions of reason, than that the violation of a contract by