“It will always be a question, whether the other States have not a right (and I think they have the clearest right) to require that the State coming into the Union should come in upon an equality; and if the existence of Slavery be an impediment to coming in on an equality, then the State proposing to come in should be required to remove that inequality by abolishing Slavery, or take the alternative of being excluded.”[77]
Afterwards, in his famous speech of the 7th of March, 1850, he reaffirmed these principles.
“It has happened that between 1837 and this time, on various occasions, I have expressed my entire opposition to the admission of Slave States, or the acquisition of new Slave Territories, to be added to the United States. I know, Sir, no change in my own sentiments or my own purposes in that respect.”[78]
I might quote more, but this is sufficient. Mr. Webster was against new Slave States.
I adduce these words as stating strongly at least one important ground of objection. The admission of West Virginia with a condition recognizing Slavery for a full generation will be an extension of the Slave Power and a new sanction of Slavery. I cannot consent to it, Sir; nor do I see any apology for hesitation. Our control of this matter is clear beyond reasonable doubt, and the present state of our country supplies a new motive for its exercise.
In the debate that ensued, Mr. Hale criticized Mr. Sumner, quoting the story of Abraham and his aged idolatrous guest, as given by Dr. Franklin.
“‘And God said to Abraham, Have I borne with you [him] these fourscore years, and canst thou not bear with him one night, who art thyself a sinner?’ Sir, in exactly the spirit inculcated by that fable I would deal with Slavery; and I would listen to-day as it were to the voice of God, who asks us, Have I borne with this thing so many generations, and cannot you bear with it dying, when it begins on the next Fourth of July?”[79]
“My friend from Massachusetts, by his proposition, strikes this institution down at one dash. I should like to see it go; but I must look a little to see what its effect will be, after all.”[80]
Before the vote was taken, Mr. Carlile, of Virginia, remarked:--
“Mr. President, it is my sincere belief that this disposition to interfere with the rights of the States, exhibited by this Congress, has prolonged the war,--that, if persisted in, the war becomes a war of indefinite duration, and that the Constitutional Union our fathers formed will be lost to us and our posterity forever.”[81]