Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/320

306 existed there. The South appealed to the Constitution, called for the Charter which created the Federal Government, and asked for the clause which gave Congress the power to interfere with the domestic institutions of any State, or with any of her affairs, further than to see that her organic law ensured a Republican form of government to her people. Nay, she appealed to the force of treaty obligations, and reminded the North that in the treaty with France for the acquisition of Louisiana, of which Missouri was a part, the public faith was pledged to protect the French settlers there, and their descendants, in their rights of property, which includes slaves. The public mind became excited; sectional feelings ran high|; and in 1820-21 the Union was in danger of being broken up through Northern aggression and Congressional usurpations. To quiet the storm, a son of Virginia came forward as peacemaker, and carried through Congress a Bill that is known as the "Missouri Compromise." So the danger was averted. This Bill, however, was a concession, simple and pure, to the North on the part of the South, with no equivalent whatever, except the gratification of a patriotic desire to live in harmony with the sister States and preserve the Union. This compromise was to the effect that the Southern people should thereafter waive their right to go with their slaves into any part of the common territory north of 36° 30'. Thus was surrendered up to the North for settlement, at her own time and in her own way, more than four-fifths of the entire public domain, with equal rights with the South in the remainder.

That posterity may fairly appreciate the extent of this exaction by the North, and of the sacrifice made by the South to satisfy it, to maintain the public peace and preserve the Union, it is necessary to refer to a map of the country, and to remember that at that time neither Texas, New Mexico, California, nor Arizona belonged to the United States; that the country west of the Mississippi which fell under that compromise is that which was acquired from France in the purchase of Louisiana, and which includes West Minnesota, the whole of Iowa, Arkansas, The Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, embracing an area of 1,360,000 square miles. Of this the South had the privilege of settling Arkansas alone, or less than the one twenty-fifth part of the whole. The