only clear of our slaves, how much better it would be for us." They are
actually deprived of the privilege of governing themselves as they would,
by the action of a very few in the beginning. The same thing was true of
the whole nation at the time our Constitution was formed.

Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new Territories, is not
a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole
nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these
Territories. We want them for homes of free white people. This they
cannot be, to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within
them. Slave States are places for poor white people to remove from, not
to remove to. New free States are the places for poor people to go to,
and better their condition. For this use the nation needs these
Territories.

Still further: there are constitutional relations between the slave and
free States which are degrading to the latter. We are under legal
obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them: a sort of
dirty, disagreeable job, which, I believe, as a general rule, the
slaveholders will not perform for one another. Then again, in the control
of the government--the management of the partnership affairs--they have
greatly the advantage of us. By the Constitution each State has two
senators, each has a number of representatives in proportion to the
number of its people, and each has a number of Presidential electors
equal to the whole number of its senators and representatives together.
But in ascertaining the number of the people for this purpose, five
slaves are counted as being equal to three whites. The slaves do not
vote; they are only counted and so used as to swell the influence of the
white people's votes. The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by
a comparison of the States of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina