ke 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 enclose. 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.

'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 increasing in numbers. In that day it
looked as if this speculative importation of laborers from Europe was to
form a material part of the domestic policy of the Northern States. Now
the negro is a human being, as well as an apprentice or a redemptioner,
though the Constitution does not consider him as the equal of either.
It is a great mistake to suppose that the Constitution of the United
States, as it now exists, recognizes slavery in any manner whatever,
unless it be to mark it as an interest that has less than the common
claim to the ordinary rights of humanity. In the apportionment, or
representation clause, the redemptioner and the apprentice counts each
as a man, whereas five slaves are enumerated as only three free men. The
free black is counted as a man, in all particulars, and is represented
as such, but his fellow in slavery has only three fifths of his
political value.'

'THE LOVE OF UNION.

'The attachment to the Union is very strong and general throughout the
whole of this vast country, and it is only necessary to sound the tocsin
to bring to its maintenance a phalanx equal to uphold its standard
against the assaults of any enemies. The impossibility of the
Northwestern States consenting that the mouth of the Mississippi should
be held by a foreign power, is in itself a guarantee of the l