have the right to go
North of this line with our slaves. Now, all we ask you to give us
here is the territory south of that line; and even as to that, we give
you the right to destroy slavery there whenever a State organized out
of it chooses to do so. We are, in fact, yielding to you. We abandon
our rights North. Will you not let us retain what is already ours,
South?

Is it quite certain that the territory south of the line will be slave
territory? Those who repealed the Missouri Compromise, believed that
Kansas would be a slave State. It did not turn out so. All we ask is,
that you should leave the territory south of the line where it has
been left by the decision of the Supreme Court. We freely yield you
all the rest.

I do not propose to discuss all the amendments proposed. I confine
myself to the single one which, if satisfactorily disposed of, will
settle all our troubles.

In conclusion, I ask, oppressed by a consciousness which almost
overmasters me--which renders me unfit to do any thing but feel--will
you not settle this question here? I feel, and I cannot escape the
feeling, that on your decision hangs the question, whether we shall be
preserved an united people, or be broken to atoms. The States now
remaining in the Union may possibly get on for a few years with
something like prosperity; but if this question is not settled in some
way, man must change his nature or _war_ in the end will come. War!
What a word to be used here! War between whom? There is not a family
at the South which has not its associations with the North--not a
Northern family which has not its Southern ties! War in the midst of
such a people! God grant that the future, that the events which must
inevitably follow dissension here, may at least spare this agony to
ourselves, our families, and our posterity.

Mr. SEDDON:--It is very clear to me that I ought not to make a
prolonged address upon a question which I favor. The only question now
before us is: Shall this amendment be made plain? We should deal
honestly among ourselves; there should be no cheat--no uncertainty--no
delusion here. Our language should be so clear that it will breed no
new nests of trouble.

But the address of the gentleman from Maryland requires a brief notice
from me. I listened with sadness to many parts of it. I bemoan that
tones so patriotic could not rise to the level of the high ground of
equality and right upon which we all ought to stand.

I appeal