one of the parties may be considered as exempting the other from its
obligations? Suppose, in private life, thirteen form a partnership, and
ten of them undertake to admit a new partner without the concurrence of
the other three, would it not be at their option to abandon the
partnership, after so palpable an infringement of their rights? How much
more, in the political partnership, where the admission of new
associates, without previous authority, is so pregnant with obvious
dangers and evils! Again, it is settled as a principle of morality,
among writers on public law, that no person can be obliged, beyond his
intent at the time of contract. Now who believes, who dare assert, that
it was the intention of the people, when they adopted this Constitution,
to assign, eventually, to New Orleans and Louisiana, a portion of their
political power; and to invest all the people those extensive regions
might hereafter contain, with an authority over themselves and their
descendants? When you throw the weight of Louisiana into the scale, you
destroy the political equipoise contemplated at the time of forming the
contract. Can any man venture to affirm that the people did intend such
a comprehension as you now, by construction, give it? Or can it be
concealed that, beyond its fair and acknowledged intent, such a compact
has no moral force? If gentlemen are so alarmed at the bare mention of
the consequences, let them abandon a measure which, sooner or later,
will produce them. How long before the seeds of discontent will ripen,
no man can foretell. But it is the part of wisdom not to multiply or
scatter them. Do you suppose the people of the Northern and Atlantic
States will, or ought to, look on with patience and see Representatives
and Senators, from the Red River and Missouri, pouring themselves upon
this and the other floor, managing the concerns of a sea-board fifteen
hundred miles, at least, from their residence; and having a
preponderancy in councils, into which, constitutionally, they could
never have been admitted? I have no hesitation upon this point. They
neither will see it, nor ought to see it, with content. It is the part
of a wise man to foresee danger and to hide himself. This great
usurpation, which creeps into this House, under the plausible appearance
of giving content to that important point, New Orleans, starts up a
gigantic power to control the nation. Upon the actual condition of
things, there is, there can be