and establish a government to protect and preserve this
institution. She now has the power to do so without the fear of
provoking a war. Her people should be unanimous, and this agitation has
made them so--I believe. I know the love of the Union has been
paramount to every other consideration with the Southern people; but
they view, as I do, this attempt to arrest the further spread of
slavery as aggressive on the part of Congress, and discover an alarming
state of the Northern mind upon this subject. This with an increasing
popular strength may grow into proportions which shall be irresistible,
and the South may be ultimately forced to do, what she never will
voluntarily do--abolish at once the institution." It was urged by Mr.
Holmes that the Constitution guaranteed slavery to the States, that its
control and destiny was alone with the States, and there was no danger
that the North would ever violate the Constitution to interfere with
what they had no interest in.

"Never violate the Constitution!" said Randolph, in an excited and
querulous tone. "Mr. Holmes, you perhaps know the nature of your people
better than I do. But I know them well enough not to trust them. They
stickle at nothing to accomplish an end; and their preachers can soon
convince them that slavery is a sin, and that they are responsible for
its existence here, and that they can only propitiate offended Deity by
its abolition. You are a peculiar people, Holmes, prone to fanaticism
upon all subjects, and this fanaticism concentrated as a religious
duty--the Constitution will only prove a barrier of straw. No, sir; I
am unwilling to trust them. They want honesty of purpose, have no
sincerity, no patriotism, no principle. Your dough-faces will profess,
but at a point will fly the track, sir; they can't stand, sir; they
can't stand pressing. Interest, interest, sir, is their moving motive.
Do you not see it in their action in this matter? Missouri is a fertile
and lovely country; they want it for the purpose of settlement with
their own people. Prohibit slavery to the inhabitants, and no Southern
man will go there; there will be no competition in the purchase of her
land. Your people will have it all to themselves; they will flock to it
like wild geese, and very soon it is a Northern State in Northern
interest; and, step after step, all the Western territory will be in
your possession, and you will create States _ab libitum_. You know the
Constitution pe