question, and join in an amendment of the Constitution,
restoring to the South the power she possessed of protecting herself,
before the equilibrium between the two sections had been destroyed by
the action of the government.

Here was a clear statement of the position and feelings of the South
respecting slavery. The ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri compromise
of 1820 "were destroying the equilibrium between the _two sections_!"
And the anti-slavery agitation, "if not arrested, would destroy the
Union!" The sophistry of Calhoun sought a reasonable excuse for the
South to dissolve the Union. In a speech of his, written during a
spell of sickness, and read by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, he referred to
Washington as "the illustrious Southerner." When it was read in the
Senate Mr. Cass said:

"Our Washington--the Washington of our whole country--receives in
this Senate the epithet of 'Southerner,' as if that great man,
whose distinguished characteristic was his attachment to his
country, and his whole country, who was so well known, and who,
more than any one, deprecated all sectional feeling and all
sectional action, loved Georgia better than he loved New
Hampshire, because he happened to be born on the southern bank of
the Potomac. I repeat, sir, that I heard with great pain that
expression from the distinguished Senator from South Carolina."

There was certainly no ground for reasonable complaint on the part of
the South. From the convention that framed the Federal Constitution,
through all Congressional struggle, and in national politics as well,
the South had secured nearly all measures asked for. And the
discussion in Congress at this time was intended to divert attention
from the real object of the South. Another fugitive-slave law was
demanded by the South, and the Northern members voted them the right
to hunt slaves upon free soil. The law passed, and was approved on the
18th of September, 1850.

It was difficult to choose between the Democratic and Whig parties by
reading the planks in their platforms referring to the subject of
slavery. On the 1st of June, 1852, the Democratic Convention, at
Baltimore, Maryland, nominated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, for
the Presidency, on the forty-ninth ballot. This plank defined the
position of that party on the question of slavery.

"That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere
with or contro