Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/526

 should not be construed to authorize the passage of any act, and that no act should be passed, "by which any of the citizens of either of the states should be excluded from the enjoyment of the privileges and immunities to which they are entitled under the constitution of the United States." The joint resolution, amended by the addition of this proviso, passed the house by 86 yeas to 82 nays; the senate concurred (February 27th, 1821,) by 26 yeas to 15 nays; (all northern but Macon, of North Carolina,) Missouri complied with the condition, and became an accepted member of the Union. Thus closed the last stage of the fierce Missouri controversy which seemed at times to threaten the existence of the Union. "So true it is," says Hildreth, "and let it not be forgotten, that no class can exist in any community so helpless and despised that it may not become the very hinge on which the fate of the nation shall turn."





 Census of 1820. — Session of 1824-5. — Gov. Troup's demonstrations. — Georgia legislature — Secession threatened. — Slaves in Canada — their surrender refused by England. — Citizens of District of Columbia petition for gradual abolition. — Census of 1830. — Antislavery societies formed in the north — counter movements north and south. — The mail troubles. — Manifesto of American Anti-slavery Society. — Petitions to congress — Discussion on the disposal of them. — Bill to prohibit the circulation of anti-slavery publications through the mails. — Calhoun's report — Measure opposed by Webster, Clay, Benton and others. — Buchanan, Tallmade, &c., favor it — Bill lost. — Atherton's gag resolutions passed.

census of 1820 exhibits a slave population of 1,538,038, being an increase of 346,674 for the ten years since 1810, a rate of about 30 per cent.

Slavery was fast decreasing in what are now the free states, except in Illinois; it had also decreased in Maryland. The increase in Virginia for the last decade