"The South gets a state, the North demands one! When Missouri came in, Illinois also was admitted--one free against one slave state.

Politics,--nothing more.

Missouri would break the balance of power if she came alone and unpaired as a slave state, so the North paired her with Maine, and let her in, with a string tied to her! Slavery already existed here, as in all these other states that had been admitted with it existent.

What the North tried to do was to abolish slavery where it had _already_ existed, legally, and under the full permission of the Constitution.

All of the Louisiana Purchase had slavery when we bought it, and under the Constitution Congress could not legislate slavery _out_ of it." The younger men of the party listened to him gravely, even eagerly.
Regarding the personal arbitrament of arms which they now faced, they were indifferent; but always they were ready to hear the arguments pro and con of that day, when indeed this loosely organized republic had the giant wolf of slavery by the ear.
"But they claimed the right of the moral law!" said Dunwody finally.
"The moral law! Who is the judge of that?
Governments are not run by that.