Now, gentlemen, in view of this subject, in view of the mighty
consequences, in view of the great events which are present before you,
and of the mighty consequences which are just now to take effect, is
it not better to settle the question by a division upon the line of the
Missouri Compromise? For thirty years we lived quietly and peacefully
under it. Our people, North and South, were accustomed to look at it
as a proper and just line. Can we not do so again? We did it then to
preserve the peace of the country. Now you see this Union in the most
imminent danger. I declare to you that it is my solemn conviction that
unless something be done, and something equivalent to this proposition,
we shall be a separated and divided people in six months from this time.
That is my firm conviction. There is no man here who deplores it more
than I do; but it is my sad and melancholy conviction that that will be
the consequence. I wish you to realize fully the danger. I wish you
to realize fully the consequences which are to follow. You can give
increased stability to this Union; you can give it an existence, a
glorious existence, for great and glorious centuries to come, by now
setting it upon a permanent basis, recognizing what the South considers
as its rights; and this is the greatest of them all; it is that you
should divide the territory by this line, and allow the people south of
it to have slavery when they are admitted into the Union as States, and
to have it during the existence of the territorial government.
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