AND THE WHIG COALITION 331 



principle opposed to the perpetuation of slavery, and 

 he sought to reconcile these positions by the argument 

 that in diffusing the slave population over a wide area 

 the evils of the institution would be diminished and 

 the prospects of ultimate emancipation increased. 

 " Slavery," said he, " has been represented on all hands 

 as a dark cloud, and the candour of the gentleman 

 from Massachusetts (Mr. Whitman) drove him to the 

 admission that it would be well to disperse this cloud. 

 In this sentiment I entirely concur with him. How 

 can you otherwise disarm it? Will you suffer it to 

 increase in its darkness over one particular portion of 

 this land, till its horrors shall burst upon it ? Will you 

 permit the lightnings of its wrath to break upon the 

 South, when by the interposition of a wise system of 

 legislation you may reduce it to a summer's cloud ? " 

 New York and Pennsylvania, he argued, had been 

 able to emancipate their slaves only because they were 

 so few. Dispersion, moreover, would be likely to 

 ameliorate the condition of the black man, for by 

 making his labour scarce in each particular locality, it 

 would increase the demand for it, and would thus 

 make it the interest of the master to deal fairly and 

 generously with his slaves. To the obvious objection 

 that the increase of the slave population would fully 

 keep up with its territorial expansion, he replied by 

 denying that such would be the case. His next argu- 

 ment was that if an old state, such as Virginia, could 

 have slaves, while a new state, such as Missouri, was 

 to be prevented by federal authority from having them, 

 then the old and new states would at once be placed 

 upon a different footing, which was contrary to the 

 spirit of the Constitution. If Congress could thus 



