37 speech, for the Senate may find it rather tedious to listen to the whole of it. It was delivered in Niblo’s Garden, in 1837. Mr. Greene then read the following extract from the speech of Mr. Webster, to which he referred: “ Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever possessed, Texas is likely to be a slaveholding country; and I frankly avow my entire unwillingness to do any thing which shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent, or add other slaveholding States to the Union. “ When I say that I regard slavery in itself as a great moral, social, and political evil, I only use language which has been adopted by distinguished men, themselves citizens of slaveholding States. “ I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its further extension. We have slavery already among us. The Constitution found it among us; it recognised it, and gave it solemn guaranties. “ To the full extent of these guaranties, we are all bound in honor, in justice, and by the Constitution. All the stipulations contained in the Constitution in favor of the slaveholding States, which are already in the Union, ought to be fulfilled, and, so far as depends on me, shall be fulfilled in the fulness of their spirit, and to the exactness of their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the States, is "beyond the reach of Congress. It is a concern of the States themselves. They have never submitted it to Congress, and Congress has no rightful power over it. “ I shall concur, therefore, in no act, no measure, no
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