The slavery question
has become paramount here at last. The slave States threaten to dissolve the
Union if slavery is prohibited by Congress in the new Territories or abolished
in the District of Columbia. I trust that Congress will do its duty, regardless
of threats. What the result may be it is impossible to determine. The Canadian
question promises to help antislavery. The annexation of that colony to the
United States would 'redress the balance' which has been turned in favor of
slavery by the annexation of Texas. I do not observe, however, any disposition
at present to interfere in the question between that colony and the imperial
government. I am anxious that it should be left to the parties without any
intervention. I shall enclose this in a note to a friend now in London,—Mr.
Burlingame.1 Though young in years, he has won a brilliant reputation
as a public speaker.
_______________
1 Anson Burlingame.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles
Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 211-2
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