endure through many changes, and keep alive the connection of
commerce even after that of the political relations may have
ceased. New York, at this moment, contributes her full share to
the prosperity of London, though she owes no allegiance to St.
James.

The American Union, however, has much more adhesiveness than is
commonly imagined. The diversity and complexity of its interests
form a network that will be found, like the web of the spider, to
possess a power of resistance far exceeding its gossamer
appearance--one strong enough to hold all that it was ever
intended to inclose. The slave interest is now making its final
effort for supremacy, and men are deceived by the throes of a
departing power. The institution of domestic slavery cannot last.
It is opposed to the spirit of the age; and the figments of Mr.
Calhoun, in affirming that the Territories belong to the States,
instead of the Government of the United States; and the
celebrated doctrine of the equilibrium, for which we look in vain
into the Constitution for a single sound argument to sustain it,
are merely the expiring efforts of a reasoning that cannot resist
the common sense of the nation. As it is healthful to exhaust all
such questions, let us turn aside a moment, to give a passing
glance at this very material subject.

{Calhoun = Senator John C. Calhoun (1782-1850} of South Carolina}

At the time when the Constitution was adopted, three classes of
persons were "held to service" in the country--apprentices,
redemptioners, and slaves. The two first classes were by no means
insignificant in 1789, and the redemptioners were rapidly