who represent the
non-slaveholding States of the Union, and a majority of each class is
required as a part of the two-thirds majority necessary for the
acquisition of territory by treaty. A full exposition of this
proposition would show that it is a complete and dangerous departure
from the principles of the Government, and sure to effect its complete
dissolution. When the Senate becomes two separate and distinct bodies,
and when the existence of the institution of slavery determines where
the line of division shall be, then the Government, for all practical
purposes, is at an end. This proposition was introduced by Mr.
Summers, of Virginia; and Virginia, by its delegates, also introduced
and supported a kindred proposition, by which "all appointments to
office in the Territories lying north of the line 36 deg. 30', as well
before as after the establishment of Territorial Governments in and
over the same, or any part thereof, shall be made upon the
recommendation of a majority of the Senators representing at the time
the non-slaveholding States; and in like manner, all appointments to
office in the Territories which may lie south of said line of 36 deg. 30',
shall be made upon the recommendation of a majority of the Senators
representing at the time the slaveholding States."

We cannot hesitate to declare the opinion, carefully formed, that this
policy of dividing the Senate into two classes, is fraught with
dangers to the country more to be dreaded than the bold and defiant
measures of those men and States that are arrayed in open hostility to
the Union. This measure is a part of the policy of Mr. Calhoun, by
which the Government was to be changed, and the executive department
so divided that nothing could be done without the concurrence of two
Presidents, one representing the slaveholding and one representing the
non-slaveholding States.

The third section contains several provisions for strengthening and
securing slavery in the District of Columbia and in the several States
and Territories. It gives to representatives and others the right to
bring their slaves into the District of Columbia, retain, and take
them away, even after slavery may have ceased to exist in that
District by the constitutional action of Congress. It secures the
slave-trade between States and Territories in which slavery is
established or recognized by law or usage, with the right of transit
through free States, by sea or river, and of touchin