ut she thinks the Republicans,
since they have got the power, are going to trample upon her rights.
She wants the North to agree not to do so. Now I should like to know
what objection there was to that? Who is afraid to do that? If we
could go to work at this thing like sensible men, we could settle the
whole matter in two hours.

Now about these propositions. I do not see any thing alarming in them.
I have not set to work to pick flaws in them. Leave that to the
lawyers. I don't care much about them, nor does the North care about
them. If the South will take them and be satisfied--if they will stop
this clamor about slavery and slavery extension, I think she had
better have them. For one, I am sick of the whole subject.

Let us then go about the work like sensible men; let us stop making
long speeches and picking flaws in each other. It is a matter of
business, and pretty important business. Let us consider it as such,
and from this moment let us throw aside all feeling, and set about
coming to some understanding. We can do it to-day as well as next
week. I do not know that these propositions are the best that can be
made; but if they are not, let us talk the matter over like good Union
men, and see what is best. When we can find that out, let us agree. If
we stay here and make speeches until doomsday, we shall be no better
off. I am for action, and coming to an immediate decision.

Mr. COALTER:--If the vote of Missouri is to be taken as an evidence of
her devotion to the Union, it must also be understood with this
qualification: Her interests and her sympathies unite her closely with
the South. She feels, in common with others, her share of anxiety for
the future. She is devoted to the Union, and at the same time she
insists that it is fair and right that these guarantees should be
given.

It has been distinctly avowed on this floor that the people of certain
sections of the North _abhor_ slavery. Ought we not to be distrustful
when a party entertaining such sentiments comes into supreme power?
If Massachusetts abhors _slavery_, how long will it be before she will
abhor _slaveholders?_

Ignorance is the source of all our difficulties. The people of the
North know little of the condition of the negro in a state of slavery.
We know that the four millions of blacks in the South are better off
in all respects than any similar number of laborers anywhere.

But I rise only to correct a false impression in regard to M