its rejection 199. Of course no less than 22 members found it convenient to be absent at this important crisis, and SIX who had supported the Proviso found motives for changing their votes.
The Proviso had indeed been rejected for the present, but it might be renewed at the next session ; and, even should it fail in the Senate, yet a treaty, ceding an immense territory to be consecrated to slavery, might not command in that body the vote of two-thirds necessary to its ratification. The very possibility of thus losing the piize for which the war was commenced, exasperated and alarmed the South, and vigorous efforts were made to induce the North to abandon the position it had taken in behalf of human liberty, by the usual threats of dissolving the Union, and by appeals to the interests of selfish pohticians. Many of the governors of the slaveholding States brought the subject before their respective Legis- latures. The Governor of Virginia, in his Message, remarked that it was " unquestionably ti*ue that, if our slaves were restricted to our present limits, they would 192 REVIIi'vV OF THE MEXICAN WAR.