influence, allowed to the slaveholding States, was a necessary sacrifice
to the establishment of the Constitution. The effect of this concession
has been obvious in the preponderance which it has given to the
slaveholding States over the other States. Nevertheless, it is an
ancient settlement, and faith and honor stand pledged not to disturb it.
But the extension of this disproportionate power to the new States would
be unjust and odious. The States whose power would be abridged, and
whose burdens would be increased by the measure, cannot be expected to
consent to it, and we may hope that the other States are too magnanimous
to insist on it.

* * * * *

It ought not to be forgotten that the first and main object of the
negotiation which led to the acquisition of Louisiana, was the free
navigation of the Mississippi, a river that forms the sole passage from
the western States to the ocean. This navigation, although of general
benefit, has been always valued and desired, as of peculiar advantage
to the Western States, whose demands to obtain it were neither equivocal
nor unreasonable. But with the river Mississippi, by a sort of coercion,
we acquired, by good or ill fortune, as our future measures shall
determine, the whole province of Louisiana. As this acquisition was made
at the common expense, it is very fairly urged that the advantages to be
derived from it should also be common. This, it is said, will not happen
if slavery be excluded from Missouri, as the citizens of the States
where slavery is permitted will be shut out, and none but citizens of
States where slavery is prohibited, can become inhabitants of Missouri.

But this consequence will not arise from the proposed exclusion of
slavery. The citizens of States in which slavery is allowed, like all