The compact was the result
of compromise between the States, at that time generally distinguished
as navigating and agricultural, afterward as Northern and Southern. When
the first census was taken, in 1790, there was but little numerical
difference in the population of these two sections, and (including
States about to be admitted) there was also an exact equality in the
number of States. Each section had, therefore, the power of
self-protection, and might feel secure against any danger of Federal
aggression. If the disturbance of that equilibrium had been the
consequence of natural causes, and the government of the whole had
continued to be administered strictly for the general welfare, there
would have been no ground for complaint of the result.
Under the old Confederation the Southern States had a large excess of
territory. The acquisition of Louisiana, of Florida, and of Texas,
afterward greatly increased this excess. The generosity and patriotism
of Virginia led her, before the adoption of the Constitution, to cede
the Northwest Territory to the United States. The "Missouri Compromise"
surrendered to the North all the newly acquired region not included in
the State of Missouri, and north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees
and a half. The northern part of Texas was in like manner given up by
the compromise of 1850; and the North, having obtained, by those
successive cessions, a majority in both Houses of Congress, took to
itself all the territory acquired from Mexico.
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