In 1776, when the American colonies declared their independence, the new nation included thirteen slave states and no free states. By 1850 things had changed dramatically. The number of slave states had increased slightly, from thirteen to fifteen, whereas the number of free states had leaped from zero to the same number, fifteen. This was the “equilibrium” to which John C. Calhoun referred in his famous last speech to the Senate on March 4, 1850. The dying South Carolinian proposed a series of constitutional amendments that would permanently equalize the power of the slave and free states in
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