And, really, what is the result of all this?  Each party within having numerous and determined backers without, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed?  Could there be a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence on the slavery question than this Nebraska project is?  I do not charge or believe that such was intended by Congress; but if they had literally formed a ring and placed champions within it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off than it is.  And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a very peaceful, Union-saving turn?  Will not the first drop of blood so shed be the real knell of the Union?

The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored.  For the sake of the Union, it ought to be restored.  We ought to elect a House of Representatives which will vote its restoration.  If by any means we omit to do this, what follows?  Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska.  But whether it be or not, we shall have repudiated—­discarded from the councils of the nation—­the spirit of compromise; for who, after this, will ever trust in a national compromise?  The spirit of mutual concession—­that spirit which first gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union—­we shall have strangled and cast from us forever.  And what shall we have in lieu of it?  The South flushed with triumph and tempted to excess; the North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for revenge.  One side will provoke, the other resent.  The one will taunt, the other defy; one aggresses, the other retaliates.  Already a few in the North defy all constitutional restraints, resist the execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and even menace the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.  Already a few in the South claim the constitutional right to take and to hold slaves in the free States, demand the revival of the slave trade, and demand a treaty with Great Britain by which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada.  As yet they are but few on either side.  It is a grave question for lovers of the union whether the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit of all compromise, will or will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fatally increase the number of both.

But restore the compromise, and what then?  We thereby restore the national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of brotherhood.  We thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and compromise, that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely trusted for all the future.  The South ought to join in doing this.  The peace of the nation is as dear to them as to us.  In memories of the past and hopes of the future, they share as largely as we.  It would be on their part a great act—­great in its spirit, and great in its effect.  It would be worth to the nation a hundred years purchase of peace and prosperity.  And what of sacrifice would they make?  They only surrender to us what they gave us for a consideration long, long ago; what they have not now asked for, struggled or cared for; what has been thrust upon them, not less to their astonishment than to ours.