by any other party issues than those which are joined upon sectional or geographical lines.  When the people of the North shall all be rallied under one banner, and the whole South marshalled under another banner, and each section excited to frenzy and madness by hostility to the institutions of the other, then the patriot may well tremble for the perpetuity of the Union.  Withdraw the slavery question from the political arena, and remove it to the States and Territories, each to decide for itself, such a catastrophe can never happen.  Then you will never be able to tell, by any Senator’s vote for or against any measure, from what State or section of the Union he comes.

Why, then, can we not withdraw this vexed question from politics?  Why can we not adopt the principle of this bill as a rule of action in all new Territorial organizations?  Why can we not deprive these agitators of their vocation and render it impossible for Senators to come here upon bargains on the slavery question?  I believe that the peace, the harmony, and perpetuity of the Union require us to go back to the doctrines of the Revolution, to the principles of the Constitution, to the principles of the Compromise of 1850, and leave the people, under the Constitution, to do as they may see proper in respect to their own internal affairs.

Mr. President, I have not brought this question forward as a Northern man or as a Southern man.  I am unwilling to recognize such divisions and distinctions.  I have brought it forward as an American Senator, representing a State which is true to this principle, and which has approved of my action in respect to the Nebraska bill.  I have brought it forward not as an act of justice to the South more than to the North.  I have presented it especially as an act of justice to the people of those Territories and of the States to be formed therefrom, now and in all time to come.  I have nothing to say about Northern rights or Southern rights.  I know of no such divisions or distinctions under the Constitution.  The bill does equal and exact justice to the whole Union, and every part of it; it violates the right of no State or Territory; but places each on a perfect equality, and leaves the people thereof to the free enjoyment of all their rights under the Constitution.

Now, sir, I wish to say to our Southern friends that if they desire to see this great principle carried out, now is their time to rally around it, to cherish it, preserve it, make it the rule of action in all future time.  If they fail to do it now, and thereby allow the doctrine of interference to prevail, upon their heads the consequences of that interference must rest.  To our Northern friends, on the other hand, I desire to say, that from this day henceforward they must rebuke the slander which has been uttered against the South, that they desire to legislate slavery into the Territories.  The South has vindicated her sincerity, her honor, on that point by bringing