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Page 27
According to the last census the aggregate population of the United
States amounted to 17,063,357, of which the northern section contained
9,728,920, and the southern 7,334,437, making a difference in round
numbers, of 2,400,000. The number of States had increased from sixteen
to twenty-six, making an addition of ten States. In the meantime
the position of Delaware had become doubtful as to which section she
properly belonged. Considering her as neutral, the Northern States will
have thirteen and the Southern States twelve, making a difference in
the Senate of two senators in favor of the former. According to the
apportionment under the census of 1840, there were two hundred and
twenty-three members of the House of Representatives, of which the
North-ern States had one hundred and thirty-five, and the Southern
States (considering Delaware as neutral) eighty-seven, making a
difference in favor of the former in the House of Representatives of
forty-eight. The difference in the Senate of two members, added to this,
gives to the North in the Electoral College, a majority of fifty. Since
the census of 1840, four States have been added to the Union--Iowa,
Wisconsin, Florida, and Texas. They leave the difference in the Senate
as it was when the census was taken; but add two to the side of the
North in the House, making the present majority in the House in its
favor fifty, and in the Electoral College fifty-two.
The result of the whole is to give the northern section a predominance
in every department of the Government, and thereby concentrate in it
the two elements which constitute the Federal Government,--majority
of States, and a majority of their population, estimated in federal
numbers. Whatever section concentrates the two in itself possesses the
control of the entire Government.
But we are just at the close of the sixth decade, and the commencement
of the seventh. The census is to be taken this year, which must add
greatly to the decided preponderance of the North in the House of
Representatives and in the Electoral College. The prospect is, also,
that a great increase will be added to its present preponderance in the
Senate, during the period of the decade, by the addition of new States.
Two territories, Oregon and Minnesota, are already in progress, and
strenuous efforts are making to bring in three additional States' from
the territory recently conquered from Mexico; which, if successful, will
add three other States in a short time to the northern section, making
five States; and increasing the present number of its States from
fifteen to twenty, and of its senators from thirty to forty. On the
contrary, there is not a single territory in progress in the southern
section, and no certainty that any additional State will be added to it
during the decade. The prospect then is, that the two sections in the
senate, should the effort now made to exclude the South from the newly
acquired territories succeed, will stand before the end of the decade,
twenty Northern States to fourteen Southern (considering Delaware as
neutral), and forty Northern senators to twenty-eight Southern. This
great increase of senators, added to the great increase of members of
the House of Representatives and the Electoral College on the part of
the North, which must take place under the next decade, will effectually
and irretrievably destroy the equilibrium which existed when the
Government commenced.
Had this destruction been the operation of time, without the
interference of Government, the South would have had no reason to
complain; but such was not the fact. It was caused by the legislation
of this Government, which was appointed as the common agent of all, and
charged with the protection of the interests and security of all. The
legislation by which it has been effected may be classed under three
heads. The first is, that series of acts by which the South has been
excluded from the common territory belonging to all the States as
members of the Federal Union--which have had the effect of extending
vastly the portion allotted to the northern section, and restricting
within narrow limits the portion left the South. the next consists
in adopting a system of revenue and disbursements, by which an undue
proportion of the burden of taxation has been imposed upon the South,
and an undue proportion of its proceeds appropriated to the North;
and the last is a system of political measures, by which the original
character of the Government has been radically changed. I propose to
bestow upon each of these, in the order they stand, a few remarks, with
the view of showing that it is owing to the action of this Government
that the equilibrium between the two sections has been destroyed, and
the whole powers of the system centered in a sectional majority.
The first of the series of Acts by which the South was deprived of its
due share of the territories, originated with the confederacy which
preceded the existence of this Government. It is to be found in the
provision of the ordinance of 1787. Its effect was to exclude the South
entirely from that vast and fertile region which lies between the Ohio
and the Mississippi rivers, now embracing five States and one Territory.
The next of the series is the Missouri compromise, which excluded the
South from that large portion of Louisiana which lies north of 36� 30',
excepting what is included in the State of Missouri. The last of the
series excluded the South from the whole of Oregon Territory. All these,
in the slang of the day, were what are called slave territories,' and
not free soil; that is, territories belonging to slaveholding powers and
open to the emigration of masters with their slaves. By these
several Acts the South was excluded from one million two hundred and
thirty-eight thousand and twenty-five square miles--an extent of country
considerably exceeding the entire valley of the Mississippi. To the
South was left the portion of the Territory of Louisiana lying south of
36� 30', and the portion north of it included in the State of Missouri,
with the portion lying south of 36� 30' including the States of
Louisiana and Arkansas, and the territory lying west of the latter, and
south of 36� 30', called the Indian country. These, with the Territory
of Florida, now the State, make, in the whole, two hundred and
eighty-three thousand five hundred and three square miles. To this must
be added the territory acquired with Texas. If the whole should be added
to the southern section it would make an increase of three hundred and
twenty-five thousand five hundred and twenty, which would make the whole
left to the South six hundred and nine thousand and twenty-three. But a
large part of Texas is still in contest between the two sections, which
leaves it uncertain what will be the real extent of the proportion of
territory that may be left to the South.
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