"You have seen them," he said, "on their winding way, meandering
the narrow and crooked path in Indian file, each treading close
upon the heels of the other, and neither venturing to take a step
to the right or left or to occupy one inch of ground which did not
bear the footprint of the Abolition champion."
The repeal of the Compromise was a mere incident of the bill. He
quoted his speeches in 1850 to show that he then defended the
popular sovereignty principle, also resolutions of the Illinois
legislature approving it. The Committee assumed in reporting
the original bill that the law of 1850 had repealed the Missouri
Compromise and hence did not mention it. Finding a diversity
of opinion and desiring to clear the ground for the unobstructed
operation of the principles of 1850 in all the Territories, they
had expressly recited the repeal. Did not the bill as originally
reported repeal the Missouri Compromise as effectually as the
amended bill did? If so, why this clamor about the amendment? They
denounced the original bill in their manifesto as a repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. If they told the truth in their manifesto their
speeches denouncing the amendment were false. If their speeches
were true their manifesto was false. The Missouri Compromise was
not a compact at all. It was simply a piece of ordinary legislation,
passed like other bills, by means of compromise and concession.
The statement that the North had faithfully performed all the terms
of he alleged contract and, hence, the South was estopped from
repudiating it, was not supported by the evidence. The North had
broken it immediately by resisting the admission of Missouri with
slavery. A resolution of the New York legislature had been passed
a few months after the Compromise instructing their Senators and
Representatives to oppose the admission of Missouri or any other
State unless its Constitution prohibited slavery. Objection being
made to the slavery clause of the Constitution, Missouri had not
been admitted until 1821. The North having broken its alleged
contract, had relieved the South from all obligation under it, if
such obligation ever existed. All this moral indignation had been
stirred up over the repeal of an ordinary law. By their manifesto
and speeches the anti-slavery Senators had roused the people to rage
in their States. The citizens of Ohio had burned him in effigy.
He could be found hanging by the neck in all the towns in which
they had influence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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