"The cession of that kind of property--for it is so misnamed--is a
bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought if in that way a
general emancipation and expatriation could be effected, and gradually
and with due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the
wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go.
Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."

Mr. Clay was in Congress, and, perceiving the danger, at once engaged his
whole energies to avert it. It began, as I have said, in 1819; and it did
not terminate till 1821. Missouri would not yield the point; and Congress
that is, a majority in Congress--by repeated votes showed a determination
not to admit the State unless it should yield. After several failures,
and great labor on the part of Mr. Clay to so present the question that a
majority could consent to the admission, it was by a vote rejected, and,
as all seemed to think, finally. A sullen gloom hung over the nation. All
felt that the rejection of Missouri was equivalent to a dissolution of
the Union, because those States which already had what Missouri was
rejected for refusing to relinquish would go with Missouri. All
deprecated and deplored this, but none saw how to avert it. For the
judgment of members to be convinced of the necessity of yielding was not
the whole difficulty; each had a constituency to meet and to answer to.
Mr. Clay, though worn down and exhausted, was appealed to by members to
renew his efforts at compromise. He did so, and by some judicious
modifications of his plan, coupled with laborious efforts with individual
members and his own overmastering eloquence upon that floor, he finally
secured the admission of the State. Brightly and captivating as it had
previously shown, it was now perceived that his great eloquence was a
mere embellishment, or at most but a helping hand to his inventive genius
and his devotion to his country in the day of her extreme peril.