and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now
stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the
South demanded the slave trade or importation of Africans for the
cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years?
When we asked a three-fifths representation in congress for our slaves was
it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from
justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor and allegiance, was
it not incorporated in the constitution, and again ratified and
strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. But do you reply that in
many instances they have violated this compact and have not been faithful
to their engagements? As individual and local communities they may have
done so; but not by the sanction of government for that has always been
true to Southern interest. Again, gentleman, look at another fact, 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 out of which four States have been carved
and ample territory for four more 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