be admitted into the Union, any restriction against slave-keeping? And it is understood that scruples on this question of right have induced several members to vote against the restriction, whose sentiments are opposed to slavery.
The distribution of business, of which a brief outline has just been given, is admirably adapted to an extensive sphere of action. The national councils are thus devoted to national concerns, and not to such petty affairs as framing public acts for demolishing the fences of private property to make room for highways, nor in borough politics, nor in deciding in the disputes of private individuals. Local affairs are regulated by local authorities, who are best able to judge of them; and this prevents any ground of complaint to arise against the national government on account of these. The State legislatures are, besides, filled annually by a free vote of the people, who have frequent opportunities of allaying their own discontents by a change of men, and a change of measures.
Those who predict an early dissolution of the {184} American Union, and who affirm that the country is naturally divided into two nations by the Allegany ridge, might with equal propriety say, that the Thames and the Severn are destined to water the territories of two distinct governments. And the remark that, in the event of the navigation of the Mississippi being interrupted by an enemy, the western country would be subjugated, is another position that may be applied to other rivers, and to other countries. It is not to be forgotten that, previously to the cession of Louisiana in 1801, the Spanish government claimed the exclusive benefit of that river, and that the privilege of navigation was the principal object that induced the government of the United States to purchase the territory, in
