The United States ... form a single nation. In war we are one people. In making peace we are one people. In all commercial regulations we are one and the same people. (Marshall.)
The crisis has arrived contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. (Senator James Barbour.)
The appeals of Niles, Roane, and Taylor, and the defiant attitude toward Nationalism of Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other States, expressed a widespread and militant Localism which now manifested itself in another and still more threatening form. The momentous and dramatic struggle in Congress over the admission of Missouri quickly followed these attacks on Marshall and the Supreme Court.
Should that Territory come into the Union only on condition that slavery be prohibited within the new State, or should the slave system be retained? The clamorous and prophetic debate upon that question stirred the land from Maine to Louisiana. A division of the Union was everywhere discussed, and the right of a State to secede was boldly proclaimed.
In the House and Senate, civil war was threatened. "I fear this subject will be an ignited spark, which, communicated to an immense mass of combustion, will produce an explosion that will shake this Union to its centre.... The crisis has arrived, contemplated by the framers of the Constitution.... This portentous subject, twelve months ago, was a little speck scarcely visible above the horizon; it has already overcast the heavens, obscuring every other object; materials are everywhere accumulating with which to render it darker."[947] In these bombastic, yet serious words Senator James Barbour of Virginia, when speaking on the Missouri question on January 14, 1820, accurately described the situation.
"I behold the father armed against the son, ... a brother's sword crimsoned with a brother's blood, ... our houses wrapt in flames," exclaimed Senator Freeman Walker of Georgia. "If Congress ... impose the restriction contemplated [exclusion of slavery from Missouri], ... consequences fatal to the peace and harmony of this Union will ... result."[948] Senator William Smith of South Carolina asked "if, under the misguided influence of fanaticism and humanity, the impetuous torrent is once put in motion, what hand short of Omnipotence can stay it?"[949] In picturing the coming horrors Senator Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky declared that "the heart sickens, the tongue falters."[950]
In the House was heard language even more sanguinary. "Let gentlemen beware!" exclaimed Robert Raymond Reid of Georgia; for to put limits on slavery was to implant "envy, hatred, and bitter reproaches, which
'Shall grow to clubs and naked swords,
To murder and to death.'...
Sir, the firebrand, which is even now cast into your society, will require blood ... for its quenching."[951]
Only a few Northern members answered with spirit. Senator Walter Lowrie of Pennsylvania preferred "a dissolution of this Union" rather than "the extension of slavery."[952] Daniel Pope Cook of Illinois avowed that "the sound of disunion ... has been uttered so often in this debate, ... that it is high time ... to adopt measures to prevent it.... Such declarations ... will have no ... effect upon me.... Is it ... the intention of gentlemen to arouse ... the South to rebellion?"[953] For the most part, however, Northern Representatives were mild and even hopeful.[954]