its fair and acknowledged intent, such a compact has no moral force?  If gentlemen are so alarmed at the bare mention of the consequences, let them abandon a measure which, sooner or later, will produce them.  How long before the seeds of discontent will ripen, no man can foretell.  But it is the part of wisdom not to multiply or scatter them.  Do you suppose the people of the Northern and Atlantic States will, or ought to, look on with patience and see Representatives and Senators, from the Red River and Missouri, pouring themselves upon this and the other floor, managing the concerns of a sea-board fifteen hundred miles, at least, from their residence; and having a preponderancy in councils, into which, constitutionally, they could never have been admitted?  I have no hesitation upon this point.  They neither will see it, nor ought to see it, with content.  It is the part of a wise man to foresee danger and to hide himself.  This great usurpation, which creeps into this House, under the plausible appearance of giving content to that important point, New Orleans, starts up a gigantic power to control the nation.  Upon the actual condition of things, there is, there can be, no need of concealment.  It is apparent to the blindest vision.  By the course of nature, and conformable to the acknowledged principles of the Constitution, the sceptre of power, in this country, is passing toward the Northwest.  Sir, there is to this no objection.  The right belongs to that quarter of the country.  Enjoy it; it is yours.  Use the powers granted as you please.  But take care, in your haste after effectual dominion, not to overload the scale by heaping it with these new acquisitions.  Grasp not too eagerly at your purpose.  In your speed after uncontrolled sway, trample not down this Constitution. * * *

New States are intended to be formed beyond the Mississippi.  There is no limit to men’s imaginations, on this subject, short of California and Columbia River.  When I said that the bill would justify a revolution and would produce it, I spoke of its principle and its practical consequences.  To this principle and those consequences I would call the attention of this House and nation.  If it be about to introduce a condition of things absolutely insupportable, it becomes wise and honest men to anticipate the evil, and to warn and prepare the people against the event.  I have no hesitation on the subject.  The extension of this principle to the States contemplated beyond the Mississippi, cannot, will not, and ought not to be borne.  And the sooner the people contemplate the unavoidable result the better; the more hope that the evils may be palliated or removed.