Note here, first, that only “_four_” states are to be admitted in “addition to said state of Texas;” and second, that “such state or _states_,” (in the plural,) as shall be formed from territory north of 36° 30´, _shall be free_. If _two_, or only _one_ free state is to exist on the _north_ side of the line, then how many will be left for the _south_ side? I should expose myself to ridicule were I to set it down arithmetically, _four_ minus _one_, equal to _three_. Yet Mr. Webster says, “The guaranty is, that new states shall be made out of it, [the Texan territory,] and that such states as are formed out of that portion of Texas lying south of 36° 30´, may come in as slave states, to _the number of_ FOUR, in addition to the state then in existence, and admitted at that time by these resolutions.” (p. 29.) Here Mr. Webster gives outright to the south and to slavery, one more state than was contracted for,--assuming the contract to be valid. He makes a donation, a gratuity, of an entire slave state, larger than many a European principality. He transfers a whole state, with all its beating hearts, present and future; with all its infinite susceptibilities of weal and woe, from the side of freedom to that of slavery, in the ledger book of humanity. What a bridal gift for the harlot of bondage! Was not the bargain hard enough, according to its terms? Must we fulfil it, and go beyond it? Is a slave state, which dooms our brethren of the human race, perhaps interminably, to the vassal’s fate, so insignificant a trifle, that it may be flung in, as small change on the settlement of an account? Has the south been so generous a copartner as to deserve this distinguished token of our gratitude? Why, by parity of reasoning, could he not have claimed all the four states, “in addition to said state of Texas,” as free states? The resolutions divide the territory into two parts, one north and one south of the line of 36° 30´. Could not Mr. Webster have claimed the four states for freedom, with as sound logic and with far better humanity than he surrendered them all to slavery? When Texas and the south have got their slave states “_to the number of four_” into the Union, whence are we to obtain our one or more free states? The contract will have been executed, and the consent of Texas for another state will be withheld. Notwithstanding all this, Mr. Webster affirms the right of slavery to four more states, in the following words: “I know no form of legislation which can strengthen this. I know no mode of recognition that can add a tittle of weight to it.” Catching the tone of his asseveration, I respond that I know no form of statement, nor process of reasoning, which can make it more clear, that this is an absolute and wanton surrender of the rights of the north and the rights of humanity. But I hold the Texan resolutions to have been utterly void; and proceed to give the reasons for my opinion.