But even if we fail to technically restore the compromise, it is still a
great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restoration. The
moral weight of such a vote cannot be estimated too highly. The authors
of Nebraska are not at all satisfied with the destruction of the
compromise--an indorsement of this principle they proclaim to be the
great object. With them, Nebraska alone is a small matter--to establish a
principle for future use is what they particularly desire.

The future use is to be the planting of slavery wherever in the wide
world local and unorganized opposition cannot prevent it. Now, if you
wish to give them this indorsement, if you wish to establish this
principle, do so. I shall regret it, but it is your right. On the
contrary, if you are opposed to the principle,--intend to give it no such
indorsement, let no wheedling, no sophistry, divert you from throwing a
direct vote against it.

Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be
thrown in company with the abolitionists. Will they allow me, as an old
Whig, to tell them, good-humoredly, that I think this is very silly?
Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right,
and part with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the abolitionist in
restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts
to repeal the Fugitive Slave law. In the latter case you stand with the
Southern disunionist. What of that? You are still right. In both cases
you are right. In both cases you oppose the dangerous extremes. In both
you stand on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both
you are national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old
Whig ground. To desert such ground because of any company is to be less