the sanction of government; for that has
always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at
another act; when we have asked that more territory should be added,
that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded
to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas? From these,
four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more is to be
added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not
destroy this hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last
slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and
Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation
which may reasonably be expected to follow.

But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of
our relation to the general government? We have always had the control
of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have
been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as
well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the
North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their
twenty-four, thus controlling the executive department. So of the judges
of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen from the South and but eleven
from the North; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has
arisen in the free states, yet a majority of the Court has always been
from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any
interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we
have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the legislative
branch of government. In choosing the presidents of the Senate, we have
had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House we have had
twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the
representatives, from their greater population, have always been from
the North, yet we have generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a
great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor
have we had less control in every other department of the general
government. Attorney-generals we have had fourteen, while the North have
had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six and they but
fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which demands diplomatic
agents abroad is clearly from the free states, from their greater
commercial interest, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to
secure the world-m