When
we voted against extending the Missouri line, little did we think we were
voting to destroy the old line, then of near thirty years' standing.
To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Compromise is no less
absurd than it would be to argue that because we have so far forborne to
acquire Cuba, we have thereby, in principle, repudiated our former
acquisitions and determined to throw them out of the Union. No less
absurd than it would be to say that because I may have refused to build
an addition to my house, I thereby have decided to destroy the existing
house! And if I catch you setting fire to my house, you will turn upon me
and say I instructed you to do it!
The most conclusive argument, however, that while for the Wilmot Proviso,
and while voting against the extension of the Missouri line, we never
thought of disturbing the original Missouri Compromise, is found in the
fact that there was then, and still is, an unorganized tract of fine
country, nearly as large as the State of Missouri, lying immediately west
of Arkansas and south of the Missouri Compromise line, and that we never
attempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular attention to
this.
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