And what
shall we have in lieu of it? The South flushed with triumph and tempted
to excess; the North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and
burning for revenge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The one
will taunt, the other defy; one aggresses, the other retaliates. Already
a few in the North defy all constitutional restraints, resist the
execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and even menace the institution of
slavery in the States where it exists. Already a few in the South claim
the constitutional right to take and to hold slaves in the free States,
demand the revival of the slave trade, and demand a treaty with Great
Britain by which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet
they are but few on either side. It is a grave question for lovers of the
union whether the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with
it the spirit of all compromise, will or will not embolden and embitter
each of these, and fatally increase the number of both.
But restore the compromise, and what then? We thereby restore the
national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of
brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and
compromise, that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and
which may be safely trusted for all the future.
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