rejection
of Missouri, it is probable at least--late as it was--that the early
expiration of the 'system' would, by this time, have been discerned
by all men.

When the Constitution was formed, the state of public sentiment even in
the South--with the exception of South Carolina and Georgia, was
favorable to emancipation. Under the influence of this public sentiment
was the Constitution formed. No person at all versed in constitutional
or legal interpretation--with his judgment unaffected by interest or any
of the prejudices to which the existing controversy has given
birth--could, it is thought, construe the Constitution, _in its letter_,
as intending to perpetuate slavery. To come to such a conclusion with a
full knowledge of what was the mind of this nation in regard to slavery,
when that instrument was made, demonstrates a moral or intellectual flaw
that makes all reasoning useless.

Although it is a fact beyond controversy in our history, that the power
conferred by the Constitution on Congress to "regulate commerce with
foreign nations" was known to include the power of abolishing the
African slave-trade--and that it was expected that Congress, at the end
of the period for which the exercise of that power on this particular
subject was restrained, would use it (as it did) _with a view to the
influence that the cutting off of that traffic would have on the
"system" in this country_--yet, such has been the influence of the action
of Congress on all matters with which slavery has been mingled--more
especially on the Missouri question, in which slavery was the sole
interest--that an impression has been produced on the popular mind, that
the Constitution of the United States _guaranties_, and consequently
_perpetuates_, slavery to the South. Most artfully, incessantly, and
powerfully, has this lamentable error been harped on by the
slaveholders, and by their advocates in the free states. The impression
of _constitutional favor_ to the slaveholders would, of itself,
naturally create for them an undue and disproportionate influence in the
control of the government; but when to this is added the arrogance that
the possession of irresponsible power almost invariably engenders in its
possessors--their overreaching assumptions--the contempt that the
slaveholders entertain for the great body of the _people_ of the North,
it has almost delivered over the government, bound neck and heels, into
the hands of slaveholding politi