But it is upon Missouri, as a State,
that your terms and conditions are to act. Until Missouri is a State,
the terms and conditions are nothing. You legislate in the shape of
terms and conditions, prospectively--and you so legislate upon it that
when it comes into the Union it is to be bound by a contract degrading
and diminishing its sovereignty--and is to be stripped of rights which
the original parties to the Union did not consent to abandon, and which
that Union (so far as depends upon it) takes under its protection and
guarantee.
Is the right to hold slaves a right which Massachusetts enjoys? If it
is, Massachusetts is under this Union in a different character from
Missouri. The compact of Union for it, is different from the
same compact of Union for Missouri. The power of Congress is
different--everything which depends upon the Union is, in that respect,
different.
But it is immaterial whether you legislate for Missouri as a State or
not. The effect of your legislation is to bring it into the Union with a
portion of its sovereignty taken away.
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