territory — I  speak  of  that  decision  not  as  I  ncoept  it,  but  as  it  ■ '
jiccepted  and  enforced  by  the  existing  administration — every  foot  of
it  slave  territory  as  tnuub  as  South  Carolina.  Over  a  cousidersble
j.>ortion  of  it  a  slave  code,  made  by  a  government  created  by  the
congress  of  the  United  Slates,  is  enforced ;  so  that,  according  to  the
claims  of  tho«*e  who  insist  upon  a  right  in  the  territory  of  the  United
States  for  slavery,  the  whole  of  this  <;ne  million  sixty -three  thousand
square  niilei*  is  slave  territory.  How  many  slaves  arc  there  in  it?
How  many  have  been  brought  into  it  during  these  twelve  yavs  inj
which  it  has  been  not  only  relinquished  to  slavery*,  but  in  which  the
court  and  the  legislature  and  the  adininistrutiou  have  maintAmed,
protected,  defendtil,  and  guaranteed  slavery  there?  Twenty-foor
African  slaves;  one  slave  for  every  forty-four  thousand  sqoair
miles;  one  slave  for  every  one  of  the  twenty-four  states  which,  sup-
]X)sing  them  each  to  be  of  the  dimensions  of  New  York  or  Pcoo-
sylvania  or  Indiana,  are  to  cover  that  portion  of  the  *rc«  of  ow
republic.  I  have  followed  this  thing  in  good  faith,  with  zeal  and
energy;  but  I  confe»<s  that  I  have  no  fears  of  slavery  now,  where,  in
the  peculiar  condition  of  things  which  has  existed,  slavery  has  sdc-
ceeded  in  planting  only  one  slave  upon  every  forty-foor  tlMraaaod
square  miles  of  territory.
