Besides, we had a large debt, contracted at home and abroad in our War of Independence; therefore the great power of taxation was conferred upon this Government.

Besides, we had a large debt, contracted at home and abroad in our War of Independence; therefore the great power of taxation was conferred upon this Government.

The instant the Government was organized, at the very first Congress, the Northern States evinced a general desire and purpose to use it for their own benefit, and to pervert its powers for sectional advantage, and they have steadily pursued that policy to this day.

The basis, the corner-stone of this Government, was the perfect equality of the free, sovereign, and independent States which made it.

Give us equality of enjoyment, equal right to expansion - it is as necessary to our prosperity as yours.