Slavery, As It Had Been Expelled From The
North, And As It Had Come To Be Welcomed In The South, Had Raised
Such A Wall Of Difference That True Political Union Was Out Of The
Question.
It would be juster, perhaps, to say that those physical
characteristics of the South which had induced this welcoming of
slavery, and those other characteristics of the North which had
induced its expulsion, were the true causes of the difference.
For
years and years this has been felt by both, and the fight has been
going on. It has been continued for thirty years, and almost always
to the detriment of the South. In 1845 Florida and Texas were
admitted into the Union as slave States. I think that no State had
then been admitted, as a free State, since Michigan, in 1836. In
1846 Iowa was admitted as a free State, and from that day to this
Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas have been
brought into the Union; all as free States. The annexation of
another slave State to the existing Union had become, I imagine,
impossible - unless such object were gained by the admission of
Texas. We all remember that fight about Kansas, and what sort of a
fight it was! Kansas lies alongside of Missouri, a slave State, and
is contiguous to no other State. If the free-soil party could, in
the days of Pierce and Buchanan, carry the day in Kansas, it is not
likely that they would be beaten on any new ground under such a
President as Lincoln.
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