THE SOUTH. 373 



colonies possessed, according to their charters, certain 

 regions in the wilderness out west, and these they 

 delivered to the nation, A special proviso was made, 

 however, by South Carolina and by Georgia, that at 

 no future time should slavery be forbidden in the 

 territories which they gave' up of their own free will ; 

 and these territories in time became slave states. It 

 is therefore evident that the South intended from the 

 first to preserve, and also to extend slavery. It must 

 be confessed that their policy was candid and con- 

 sistent, and of a piece throughout. They refused to 

 enter the Union unless their property was guaranteed ; 

 they threatened to withdraw from the Union whenever 

 they thought that the guarantee was about to be 

 evaded or withdrawn. The clauses contained in the 

 Constitution were binding on the nation ; but they 

 might be revoked by means of a constitutional amend- 

 ment, which could be passed by the consent of three- 

 fourths of the states. Emigrants continually poured 

 into the north : and these again streamed out towards 

 the west. It was evident that in time new states 

 would be formed, and that the original slave states 

 would be left in a minority. These states were purely 

 agricultural ; they had no commerce ; they had no 

 manufactures. Indigo, rice, and tobacco were the 

 products on which they lived ; and the markets for 

 these were in an ugly state. The East Indies had 

 begun to compete with them in rice and indigo ; the 

 demand for tobacco did not increase. There was a 

 general languor in the south ; the young men did not 

 know what to do. Slavery is a wasteful and costly in- 

 stitution, and requires large profits to keep it alive ; it 

 seemed on the point of dying in the south, when there 

 came a voice across the Atlantic crying for cotton in 



