se by the laws, customs, and
principles of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Behind her ample
shield, we find refuge, and feel safety. I beg gentlemen not to act upon
the principle, that the commonwealth of Massachusetts is their farm.

"But," the gentleman adds, "what shall we do, if we do not admit the
people of Louisiana into our Union? Our children are settling that
country." Sir, it is no concern of mine what he does. Because his
children have run wild and uncovered into the woods, is that a reason
for him to break into my house, or the houses of my friends, to filch
our children's clothes, in order to cover his children's nakedness. This
Constitution never was, and never can be, strained to lap over all the
wilderness of the West, without essentially affecting both the rights
and convenience of its real proprietors. It was never constructed to
form a covering for the inhabitants of the Missouri and Red River
country. And whenever it is attempted to be stretched over them, it will
rend asunder. I have done with this part of my argument. It rests upon
this fundamental principle, that the proportion of political power,
subject only to internal modifications, permitted by the Constitution,
is an unalienable, essential, intangible right. When it is touched, the
fabric is annihilated; for, on the preservation of these proportions,
depend our rights and liberties.

If we recur to the known relations existing among the States at the time
of the adoption of this Constitution, the same conclusions will result.
The various interests, habits, manners, prejudices, education,
situation, and views, which excited jealousies and anxieties in the
breasts of some of our most distinguished citizens, touching the result
of the proposed Constitution, were potent obstacles to its adoption. The
immortal leader of our Revolution, in his letter to the President of the
old Congress, written as president of the convention which formed this
compact, thus speaks on this subject: "It is at all times difficult to
draw, with precision, the line between those rights which must be
surrendered, and those which may be reserved; and on the present
occasion this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several
States, as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular
interests."

The debates of that period will show that the effect of the slave votes
upon the political influence of this part of the country, and the
anticipated variati