We can govern it as a province, or sell it to any other nation. A part of it is probably at this time sold to Spain, and the inhabitants of it may soon not only enjoy the comforts of slavery, but the blessings of the holy inquisition along with them. The question is on the admission of Missouri, as a state, into the Union. Surely it will not be contended that we are bound by the treaty to admit it. The treaty-making power does not extend so far. Can the president and senate, by a treaty with Great Britain, make the province of Lower Canada a state of this Union? To be received as a state into this Union, is a privilege which no country can claim as a right. It is a favor to be granted or not, as the United States may choose. When the United States think proper to grant a favor, they may annex just and reasonable terms; and what can be more reasonable than for these states to insist that a new territory, wishing to have the benefits of freedom extended to it, should renounce a principle that militates with justice, morality, religion, and every essential right of mankind? Louisiana was admitted into the Union on terms. The conditions, I admit, were not very important, but still they recognize the principles for which I contend.
An opportunity is now presented, if not to diminish, at least to prevent the growth of a sin which sits heavily on the soul of every one of us. By embracing this opportunity, we may retrieve the national character, and, in some degree, our own. But if we suffer it to pass unimproved, let us at least be consistent, and declare that our constitution was made to impose slavery, and not to establish liberty. Let us no longer tell idle tales about the gradual abolition of slavery; away with colonization societies, if their design is only to rid us of free blacks and turbulent slaves; have done also with bible societies, whose views are extended to Africa and the East Indies, while they overlook the deplorable condition of their sable brethren within our own borders; make no more laws to prohibit the importation of slaves, for the world must see that the object of such laws is alone to prevent the glutting of a prodigious market for the flesh and blood of man, which we are about to establish in the west, and to enhance the price of sturdy wretches, reared, like black cattle and horses, for sale on our own plantations.
On coming out of the committee, the yeas and nays were called on the question of agreeing to the first part of the amendment, which reads,
"And provided also, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall be duly convicted;"
Yeas, 87; only one from a slave state, the state of Delaware—nays, 76; ten from free states, and sixty-six from slave states. The house proceeded to vote on the residue of the proposed amendment, which reads, —"and that all children of slaves, born within the said state, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be declared free at the age of twenty-five years."
Yeas, 82; one vote from Maryland—nays, 78; fourteen from free states. So the whole amendment—as moved by Gen. Tallmadge in committee of the whole, and there carried—was sustained when reported to the house.
