User: Throughout much of the debates concerning slavery, emancipation and such one voice continues to speak for the Southern States…that of John Calhoun. During the debates concerning the entrance of California to the Union, Calhoun had fallen quite ill…He had asked Senator James Mason of Virginia to deliver his message of “justice…simple justice for the South”…below is a small excerpt…Please feel free to comment… “I have, Senators, believed from the first that the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measures, end in disunion…The agitation has been permitted to proceed…until it has reached a period when it can no longer be disguised or denied that the Union is in danger. You have thus had forced upon you the greatest and the gravest question that can ever come under your consideration. How can the Union be preserved?” quoted in The Compromise of 1850, edited by Edwin C. Rozwenc