ld so grapple the
affections of the people to the national authority, that it would,
in process of time, overshadow that of the state governments, and
settle the preponderancy of power in the free states; and then the
undying worm of conscience twinges with terror for the fate of _the
peculiar institution_. Slavery stands aghast at the prospective
promotion of the general welfare, and flies to nullification for
defence against the energies of freedom, and the inalienable rights
of man."

After stating and commenting upon the policy of General Jackson, as
having for its object the "dismembering of Mexico, and restoring slavery
to Texas, and of surrounding the South with a girdle of slave states, to
eternize the blessings of the peculiar institution, and spread them like
a garment of praise over the whole North American Union," he explained
the effect of party divisions always operating in the United States, and
the character of the several proportions of their power. Their results,
in tending to revive and strengthen slavery and the slave-trade, which
Mr. Adams then foretold, excited melancholy anticipations in the mind of
every reflecting freeman. What was then prophecy is now history.

"There are two different party divisions always operating in the
House of Representatives of the United States,--one sectional,
North and South, or, in other words, slave and free; the other
political--both sides of which have been known at different times
by different names, but are now usually denominated Whigs and
Democrats. The Southern or slave party, outnumbered by the free,
are cemented together by a common, intense interest of property to
the amount of twelve hundred millions of dollars in human beings,
the very existence of which is neither allowed nor tolerated in the
North. It is the opinion of many theoretical reasoners on the
subject of government that, whatever may be its form, the ruling
power of every nation is its property. Mr. Van Buren, in one of his
messages to Congress, gravely pointed out to them the
anti-republican tendencies of associated wealth. Reflect now upon
the tendencies of twelve hundred millions of dollars of associated
wealth, directly represented in your national legislature by one
hundred members, together with one hundred and forty members
representing persons only--freemen, not chattels. Reflect,