ying with them their own
peculiar law, a law which creates property in persons."

So the Wilmot Proviso was no monstrous thing at all, as applied to
Oregon. When the question came up of applying this same Proviso to New
Mexico and California, Mr. Webster discovered in these Territories a
certain peculiarity of physical geography and Asiatic scenery which he
had not discovered in Oregon, and which, he found, rendered it a
physical impossibility for Southern gentlemen to carry there "a law
which creates property in persons," and he therefore gave them full
liberty to carry their law into those vast regions, if they could. But
at the very moment of giving this liberty to Southern gentlemen, he
courageously warned them that his thunder was good constitutional
thunder, and would be used whenever necessary. "Wherever there is an
_inch of land_ to be stayed back from becoming slave territory, I am
ready to insert the principle of the exclusion of slavery. I am pledged
to that from 1837,--pledged to it again and again, and I will perform
those pledges." So, should we get another slice of Mexico, or annex Cuba
or St. Domingo, Mr. Webster would revive the Wilmot Proviso, and then
_he_ will be the means, if he succeeds, of dissolving the Union!

3. The next condition announced to the Safety Committee is,--"No attempt
shall be made in Congress to prohibit slavery in the District of
Columbia."

Now it is the opinion of Mr. Webster, that Congress has the
constitutional right, not merely to attempt, but actually to effect, the
exclusion of slavery in _all_ the Territories of the United States. The
District of Columbia being placed by the Constitution expressly under
"the exclusive jurisdiction" of Congress, the _constitutional_ right to
abolish slavery there has rarely been questioned; but it has been
contended that good faith to the States which ceded the District forbids
such an act of constitutional power. Hence, in 1838, a resolution was
introduced into the Senate declaring that the abolition of slavery in
the District would be "a violation of good faith," &c. What said Mr.
Webster? "I do not know any matter of fact, or any ground of argument,
on which this affirmation of plighted faith can stand. I see nothing in
the act of cession, and nothing in the Constitution, and nothing in the
transaction, implying any limitation on the authority of Congress."[5]

[5] On the 10th of January, 1838, Mr. Clay moved in the Senate the
follo