e him far less ready to listen to the voice of the
tempter in the form of the speculator, who had heretofore lured him to
make larger purchases on credit than he could ever pay for by the labor
of his hands.

In the midst of this period of financial depression, the Territory of
Missouri applied for admission into the Union. On February 13, 1819,
while an enabling act was under consideration in the House of
Representatives, James Tallmadge, of New York, moved an amendment which
touched Southern interests to the quick. "_And provided_, That the
further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited,
except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after
the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of
twenty-five years."

[Map: Distribution of Slaves 1820]

This bold attempt to prevent the spread of slavery provoked a brief but
momentous debate. Clay left the Speaker's chair to remonstrate, "in the
name of humanity," against a policy which could result, he believed,
only in the misery of the slaves of the South. The lot of the negro
would be vastly improved if the unfortunate people were more widely
dispersed. Taylor, of New York, called this a specious plea. "It is that
humanity," said he, "which seeks to palliate disease by the application
of nostrums, which scatter its seeds through the whole system." To open
the West to slavery would be simply to create an additional demand for
the importation of slaves. Of those Southern Representatives who took
part in this debate, not a man posed as the defender of slavery in the
abstract. Barbour, of Virginia, frankly admitted that slavery "like all
other human things is mixed with good and evil--the latter, no doubt,
preponderating." And Johnson, of Kentucky, maintained that though
slavery might be a necessary evil, "not incompatible with true
religion," even so "slavery must still be a bitter draught."

What rankled in the breasts of all Southern men was the insinuation that
their social system was founded on hypocrisy and tyranny. Tallmadge
commented with biting sarcasm on the willingness of Southern gentlemen
to contribute to missionary enterprises for the uplifting of the
Hottentots and Hindus, and their determination to keep their African
slaves in ignorance. And his colleague contrasted the plantations,
overrun with weeds on one side of Mason and Dixo