FEB. 14.
You ejaculate a
prayer for my protection. I do not feel in any personal danger. I mean to tell
them what I think, and in such a way that they shall understand me. But I am
principled against doing it offensively.
If Mr. Clay had
demanded immunity for slavery in the States and in the District only, he would
have demanded nothing more than the South claims as absolute right; and so it
would, in their eyes, have wanted the reciprocity of a compromise. Nobody but
the abolitionists of the Garrison school pretends to interfere with slavery in
the States; and non-interference with slavery in the District, now only fifty
square miles, would have seemed to them paltry. I think, regarding the thing as a compromise, Mr.
Clay has done pretty well. But I do not concede their right to carry slavery
into the Territories at all; and therefore I will never yield to their claim to
carry it there, come what will. I should prefer dissolution even, terrible as
it would be, to slavery extension.
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