The Missouri compromise was interference; the compromise of 1850 was non-interference, leaving the people to exercise their rights under the Constitution.  The Committee on Territories were compelled to act on this subject.  I, as their chairman, was bound to meet the question.  I chose to take the responsibility regardless of consequences personal to myself.  I should have done the same thing last year, if there had been time; but we know, considering the late period at which the bill then reached us from the House, that there was not sufficient time to consider the question fully, and to prepare a report upon the subject.

I was, therefore, persuaded by my friends to allow the bill to be reported to the Senate, in order that such action might be taken as should be deemed wise and proper.  The bill was never taken up for action—­the last night of the session having been exhausted in debate on a motion to take up the bill.  This session, the measure was introduced by my friend from Iowa (Mr. Dodge), and referred to the Territorial Committee during the first week of the session.  We have abundance of time to consider the subject; it is a matter of pressing necessity, and there was no excuse for not meeting it directly and fairly.  We were compelled to take our position upon the doctrine either of intervention or non-intervention.  We chose the latter for two reasons:  first, because we believed that the principle was right; and, second, because it was the principle adopted in 1850, to which the two great political parties of the country were solemnly pledged.

There is another reason why I desire to see this principle recognized as a rule of action in all time to come.  It will have the effect to destroy all sectional parties and sectional agitations.  If, in the language of the report of the committee, you withdraw the slavery question from the halls of Congress and the political arena, and commit it to the arbitrament of those who are immediately interested in and alone responsible for its consequences, there is nothing left out of which sectional parties can be organized.  It never was done, and never can be done on the bank, tariff, distribution, or any party issue which has existed, or may exist, after this slavery question is withdrawn from politics.  On every other political question these have always supporters and opponents in every portion of the Union—­in each State, county, village, and neighborhood—­residing together in harmony and good fellowship, and combating each other’s opinions and correcting each other’s errors in a spirit of kindness and friendship.  These differences of opinion between neighbors and friends, and the discussions that grow out of them, and the sympathy which each feels with the advocates of his own opinions in every portion of this widespread Republic, add an overwhelming and irresistible moral weight to the strength of the Confederacy.  Affection for the Union can never be alienated or diminished