5316. MISSOURI QUESTION, Slavery extension.—
All know that permitting the
slaves of the south to spread into the west
will not add one being to that unfortunate
condition, that it will increase the happiness
of those existing, and by spreading them over
a larger surface, will dilute the evil everywhere,
and facilitate the means of getting finally
rid of it, an event more anxiously wished by
those on whom it presses than by the noisy
pretenders to exclusive humanity. In the
meantime, it is a ladder for rivals climbing
to power.—
To M. de Lafayette. Washington ed. vii, 194.
Ford ed., x, 180.
(M.
1820)
