The South asks for justice, simple justice,
and less she ought not to take. She has no compromise to offer, but the
Constitution; and no concession or surrender to make. She has already
surrendered so much that she has little left to surrender. Such a
settlement would go to the root of the evil, and remove all cause of
discontent, by satisfying the South that she could remain honorably
and safely in the Union, and thereby restore the harmony and fraternal
feelings between the sections, which existed anterior to the Missouri
agitation. Nothing else can, with any certainty, finally and forever
settle the question at issue, terminate agitation, and save the Union.
But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the weaker party, for it can,
of itself do nothing,--not even protect itself--but by the stronger. The
North has only to will it to accomplish it--to do justice by conceding
to the South an equal right in the acquired territory, and to do her
duty by causing the stipulations relative to fugitive slaves to be
faithfully fulfilled, to cease the agitation of the slave question, and
to provide for the insertion of a provision in the Constitution, by an
amendment, which will restore to the South, in substance, the power
she possessed of protecting herself, before the equilibrium between the
sections was destroyed by the action of this Government.
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