by public speakers and flooded with pamphleteers; the press opened its battery and kept up a continual fire; thus the country was agitated until it was fairly ablaze with excitement.
The North opposed the permanent establishment of slavery, from moral and political considerations. It claimed to be actuated by the spirit of the founders of the Republic, who sought by all legislative means to prevent the growth of slavery. It was plain, however, that whatever party obtained Missouri, obtained the balance of power, and there is no doubt that the North sought to obtain it on this account, as well as from other considerations. But such is the construction which mankind put upon the motives of an action, that where there may be an unworthy one, no matter how many good ones, they generally attribute it to the former. The South put, therefore, the very worst interpretation upon the actions of the North, as aiming at political supremacy by an unjust and oppressive legislation.
The position of the anti-restrictionists was a very singular one, if not inconsistent. They bewailed in most eloquent lamentations over the wrongs which slavery inflicted upon the slaves, country and people; conceded the right and duty of Congress to prohibit it from the territories, and to provide, in every constitutional way, for its removal; but now that they had the power to prevent its extension, and, consequently, its growth, they refused to exercise it. But they fought the battle under the banner of State Rights, State Sovereignty, Liberty, and the Right of the people to frame their own institutions, as opposed to Usurpation and Oppression on the part of Congress.
Fresh from the heat of popular discussion, with feelings all aglow with excitement, the members of the XVIth Congress convened.[1] Memorials from the people and Legislature of Missouri bearing evidence of an angry feeling, caused by
- ↑ December 16, 1819.
