There is another principle, equally clear, by which I mean to abide; and that is, that in the Convention, and in the first Congress, when appealed to on the subject by petitions, and all along in the history of this government, it was and has been a conceded point, that slavery in the States in which it exists is a matter of State regulation exclusively, and that Congress has not the least power over it, or right to interfere with it.  Therefore I say, that all agitations and attempts to disturb the relations between master and slave, by persons not living in the slave States, are unconstitutional in their spirit, and are, in my opinion, productive of nothing but evil and mischief.  I countenance none of them.  The manner in which the governments of those States where slavery exists are to regulate it, is for their own consideration, under their responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God.  Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it, nor right to interfere with it.  They have never received any encouragement from me, and they never will.  In my opinion, they have done nothing but delay and defeat their own professed objects.

I have now stated, as I understand it, the condition of things upon the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.  What has happened since?  Sir, it has happened that, above and beyond all contemplation or expectation of the original framers of the Constitution, or the people who adopted it, foreign territory has been acquired by cession, first from France, and then from Spain, on our southern frontier.  And what has been the result?  Five slave-holding States have been created and added to the Union, bringing ten Senators into this body, (I include Texas, which I consider in the light of a foreign acquisition also,) and up to this hour in which I address you, not one free State has been admitted to the Union from all this acquired territory!

     MR. BERRIEN (in his seat).  Yes, Iowa.

Iowa is not yet in the Union.  Her Senators are not here.  When she comes in, there will be one to five, one free State to five slave States, formed out of new territories.  Now, it seems strange to me that there should be any complaint of injustice exercised by the North toward the South.  Northern votes have been necessary, they have been ready, and they have been given, to aid in the admission of these five new slave-holding States.  These are facts; and as the gentleman from Georgia has very properly put it as a case in which we are to present ourselves before the world for its judgment, let us now see how we stand.  I do not represent the North.  I state my own case; and I present the matter in that light in which I am willing, as an individual member of Congress, to be judged by civilized humanity.  I say then, that, according to true history, the slave-holding interest in this country has not been a disfavored interest; it has not been disfavored by the North.  The North has concurred to bring in these five slave-holding States out of newly acquired territory, which acquisitions were not at all in the contemplation of the Convention which formed the Constitution, or of the people when they agreed that there should be a representation of three fifths of the slaves in the then existing States.