"--T. 400,
_Elliott's Debates_.
And again, THURSDAY, _August 23d,_ 1787, Mr. Pinckney renewed the motion
with some modifications.--T. 1409. _Madison Papers_.
And although Mr. Pinckney, as correctly stated by Mr. Lincoln, "steadily
voted against slavery prohibition, and against all compromises," he
still regarded the passage of the Missouri Compromise as a great triumph
of the South, which is apparent from the following letter:
CONGRESS HALL, _March 2d_, 1820, 3 _o'clock at night_.
DEAR SIR:---I hasten to inform you, that this moment we have carried
the question to admit Missouri, and all Louisiana to the southward of
36 deg. 30', free from the restriction of slavery, and give the South, in a
short time, an addition of six, perhaps eight, members to the Senate of
the United States. It is considered here by the slaveholding States as a
great triumph.
The votes were close--ninety to eighty-six--produced by the seceding and
absence of a few moderate men from the North. To the north of 36 deg. 30,'
there is to be, by the present law, restriction; which you will see by
the votes, I voted against. But it is at present of no moment; it is a
vast tract, uninhabited, only by savages and wild beasts, in which not a
foot of the Indian claims to soil is extinguished, and in which,
according to the ideas prevalent, no land office will be opened for a
great length of time.
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