of "Bravo!"]--a slave territory exclusively,--[cries of "No,
no!" and laughter]--and the North a free territory,--what will be
the final result? You will lay the foundation for carrying the slave
population clear through to the Pacific Ocean. This is the first step.
There is not a man that has been a leader of the South any time within
these twenty years, that has not had this for a plan. It was for this
that Texas was invaded, first by colonists, next by marauders, until
it was wrested from Mexico. It was for this that they engaged in the
Mexican War itself, by which the vast territory reaching to the Pacific
was added to the Union. Never for a moment have they given up the plan
of spreading the American institutions, as they call them, straight
through toward the West, until the slave, who has washed his feet in
the Atlantic, shall be carried to wash them in the Pacific. [Cries of
"Question," and up-roar.] There! I have got that statement out, and you
cannot put it back. [Laughter and applause.] Now, let us consider the
prospect. If the South becomes a slave empire, what relation will it
have to you as a customer? [A voice: "Or any other man." Laughter.] It
would be an empire of 12,000,000 of people. Now, of these, 8,000,000 are
white, and 4,000,000 black. [A voice: "How many have you got?" Applause
and laughter. Another voice: "Free your own slaves."] Consider that one
third of the whole are the miserably poor, unbuying blacks. [Cries of
"No, no!" "Yes, yes!" and interruption.] You do not manufacture much for
them. [Hisses, "Oh!" "No."] You have not got machinery coarse enough.
[Laughter, and "No."] Your labor is too skilled by far to manufacture
bagging and linsey-woolsey. [A Southerner: "We are going to free them,
every one."] Then you and I agree exactly. [Laughter.] One other third
consists of a poor, unskilled, degraded white population; and
the remaining one third, which is a large allowance, we will say,
intelligent and rich.

Now here are twelve million of people, and only one third of them are
customers that can afford to buy the kind of goods that you bring to
market. [Interruption and uproar.] My friends, I saw a man once, who was
a little late at a railway station, chase an express train. He did not
catch it. [Laughter.] If you are going to stop this meeting, you have
got to stop it before I speak; for after I have got the things out, you
may chase as long as you please--you would not catch them. [Laughter