miles, leaving to the South the southern portion of the original
Louisiana territory, with Florida, to which had since been added
the territory acquired with Texas,--making in all but 609,023
miles. And now the North was endeavoring to appropriate to
herself the territory recently acquired from Mexico, adding
526,078 miles to the territory from which the South was, if
possible, to be excluded. Another cause of the destruction of
this equilibrium was our system of revenue (the tariff), the
duties falling mainly upon the Southern portion of the Union, as
being the greatest exporting States, while more than a due
proportion of the revenue had been disbursed at the North.

"But while these measures were destroying the equilibrium between
the two sections, the action of the government was leading to a
radical change in its character. It was maintained that the
government itself had the right to decide, in the last resort,
as to the extent of its powers, and to resort to force to
maintain the power it claimed. The doctrines of General Jackson's
proclamation, subsequently asserted and maintained by Mr.
Madison, the leading framer and expounder of the Constitution,
were the doctrines which, if carried out, would change the
character of the government from a federal republic, as it came
from the hands of its framers, into a great national consolidated
democracy."

Mr. Calhoun also spoke of the anti-slavery agitation, which, if not
arrested, would destroy the Union; and he passed a censure upon
Congress for receiving abolition petitions. Had Congress in the
beginning adopted the course which he had advocated, which was to
refuse to take jurisdiction, by the united voice of all parties, the
agitation would have been prevented. He charged the North with false
professions of devotion to the Union, and with having violated the
Constitution. Acts had been passed in Northern States to set aside and
annul the clause of the slavery question, with the avowed purpose of
abolishing slavery in the States, which was another violation of the
Constitution. And during the fifteen years of this agitation, in not a
single instance had the people of the North denounced these agitators.
How then could their professions of devotion to the Union be sincere?

Mr. Calhoun disapproved both the plan of Mr. Clay and that of
President Taylo