constitutional question in my opinion involved in voting either for or against this amendment. It is a mere question of policy and that question of policy I am willing to yield for the sake of a higher principle entertained in this bill. Sir, I would vote for this bill, although there might be not only one, but one thousand obnoxious principles contained in it. I would vote for it because it blots out that infamous,—yes, sir, I think it a proper term to use—that infamous restriction passed by the Congress of 1820, commonly called the Missouri Compromise, passed when the State which I now in part have the honor to represent, asked admission into the Union of these States, and it was made a condition, an infamous condition, that slavery should be excluded from all the territory acquired from France, then called Louisiana, north of 36° 30' north latitude. Yes, Sir, if this bill contained one thousand obnoxious principles, with the repeal of that infamous ‘Compromise,’ as it is called, I should vote for it. When this is done we shall have achieved what, after thirty years of struggle, has only been consummated at this session.”
This exhibits the feeling with which slavery propagandists regarded the Missouri Compromise—a restriction which they had solemnly and voluntarily applied to slavery themselves in order that they might gain other ends. But after they had secured all the advantages of these concessions on the part of Free Labor, they break down the barrier of plighted faith and demand all that they had of their own accord surrendered up.
The bill which passed the Senate on the 25th and received the signature of the President on the 30th of May, 1854, will be found in the following chapter:
It is very evident that the scheme of organizing two territories instead of one, was designed to keep up the balance of power between the northern and southern States. The latter who saw that no reasonable objection could be interposed sooner or later against the organization of Nebraska, which must necessarily be a free Territory, determined, in order to preserve the equilibrium of power, to divide it into two territories,
