" The question then came up whether we should
lose California, which has got an interdiction in her constitution,
which, in point of value and duration, is worth a thousand Wilmot
provisos; we were induced, as my honorable friend would say, to take the
bill and the whole of it together, although we were disappointed in our
votes with respect to the Wilmot proviso--to take it, whatever omissions
may have been made, on account of the superior amount of good it
contains. * * *
Not the reception of the treaty of peace negotiated at Ghent, nor any
other event which has occurred during my progress in public life, ever
gave such unbounded and universal satisfaction as the settlement of the
Missouri compromise. We may argue from like causes like effects. Then,
indeed, there was great excitement. Then, indeed, all the legislatures
of the North called out for the exclusion of Missouri, and all the
legislatures of the South called out for her admission as a State.
Then, as now, the country was agitated like the ocean in the midst of
a turbulent storm.
Pages:
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229