might have imitated the noble example of my friend (Senator Cooper, of Pennsylvania), from that State upon whose devotion to this Union I place one of my greatest reliances for its preservation.  What was the course of my friend upon this subject of the Wilmot proviso?  He voted for it; and he could go back to his constituents and say, as all of you could go back and say to your constituents, if you chose to do so—­“We wanted the Wilmot proviso in the bill; we tried to get it in; but the majority of the Senate was against it.”  The question then came up whether we should lose California, which has got an interdiction in her constitution, which, in point of value and duration, is worth a thousand Wilmot provisos; we were induced, as my honorable friend would say, to take the bill and the whole of it together, although we were disappointed in our votes with respect to the Wilmot proviso—­to take it, whatever omissions may have been made, on account of the superior amount of good it contains. * * *

Not the reception of the treaty of peace negotiated at Ghent, nor any other event which has occurred during my progress in public life, ever gave such unbounded and universal satisfaction as the settlement of the Missouri compromise.  We may argue from like causes like effects.  Then, indeed, there was great excitement.  Then, indeed, all the legislatures of the North called out for the exclusion of Missouri, and all the legislatures of the South called out for her admission as a State.  Then, as now, the country was agitated like the ocean in the midst of a turbulent storm.  But now, more than then, has this agitation been increased.  Now, more than then, are the dangers which exist, if the controversy remains unsettled, more aggravated and more to be dreaded.  The idea of disunion was then scarcely a low whisper.  Now, it has become a familiar language in certain portions of the country.  The public mind and the public heart are becoming familiarized with that most dangerous and fatal of all events—­the disunion of the States.  People begin to contend that this is not so bad a thing as they had supposed.  Like the progress in all human affairs, as we approach danger it disappears, it diminishes in our conception, and we no longer regard it with that awful apprehension of consequences that we did before we came into contact with it.  Everywhere now there is a state of things, a degree of alarm and apprehension, and determination to fight, as they regard it, against the aggressions of the North.  That did not so demonstrate itself at the period of the Missouri compromise.  It was followed, in consequence of the adoption of the measure which settled the difficulty of Missouri, by peace, harmony, and tranquillity.  So, now, I infer, from the greater amount of agitation, from the greater amount of danger, that, if you adopt the measures under consideration, they, too, will be followed by the same amount of contentment, satisfaction, peace, and tranquillity, which ensued after the Missouri compromise. * * *