He
struck with firm hand the chord of sectional rivalry in his argument
against the injustice to the north of creating new slave-holding
states, which would have a political representation, under the
"federal ratio," not possessed by the north. Under this provision
for counting three-fifths of the slaves, five free persons in
Virginia (so he argued) had as much power in the choice of
representatives to Congress and in the appointment of presidential
electors as seven free persons in any of the states in which slavery
did not exist. The disproportionate power and influence allowed to
the original slave-holding states was a necessary sacrifice to the
establishment of the Constitution; but the arrangement was limited
to the old thirteen states, and was not applicable to the states
made out of territory since acquired. This argument had been
familiar to New England ever since the purchase of Louisiana.
Finally, he argued that the safety of the Union demanded the
exclusion of slavery west of the Mississippi, where the exposed and
important frontier needed a barrier of free citizens against the
attacks of future assailants.
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