heat, which is excessive to the white man, is precisely suited to the
negro. In the course of years, therefore, there came to be
comparatively few negroes in the North while large numbers were found
in the South.

It is generally conceded that the founders of our government looked
forward to a gradual extinction of slavery. In the first draft of the
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson inserted some scathing
remarks about the King's part in the slave traffic. But it was felt
that such remarks would come with ill grace from colonies that abetted
slavery, and the passage was stricken out. It was, however, provided
that the slave trade should cease in the year 1808.

The Ordinance of 1787 recognized the difference in sentiment of the two
portions of the country on the subject, and was enacted as a
compromise. Like several subsequent enactments, it was supposed to set
the agitation of the subject for ever at rest. This ordinance provided
that slavery should be excluded from the northwestern territory. At
that time the Mississippi river formed the western boundary of the
country, and the territory thus ordained to be free was that out of
which the five states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and
Wisconsin were subsequently formed. It was not then dreamed that the
future acquisition of new territory, or the sudden appreciation of the
value of the slave, would reopen the question.

But three facts changed the entire complexion of the subject. It was
discovered that the soil and climate of the South were remarkably well
adapted to the growth of cotton. Then the development of steam power
and machinery in the manufacture of cotton goods created a sudden and
enormous demand from Liverpool, Manchester, and other cities in England