MR HAMILTON ON THE PROSPECTS OF THE UNION. 293 



water, but both would have brandy, a consummation worthy of 

 centuries of struggle to attain. 



&quot; All this is nonsense, undoubtedly, nor do I say that this 

 party, though strong in New York, is yet so numerous or so 

 widely diffused as to create immediate alarm. In the elec 

 tions, however, for the civic offices of the city, their influence 

 is strongly felt ; and there can be no doubt, that as popula 

 tion becomes more dense, and the supply of labour shall equal, 

 or exceed the demand for it, the strength of this party must 

 be enormously augmented. Their ranks will always be re 

 cruited by the needy, the idle, and the profligate ; and, like a 

 rolling snow-ball, it will gather strength and volume as it pro 

 ceeds, until at length it comes thundering with the force and 

 desolation of an avalanche. 



&quot; This event may be distant, but it is not the less certain 

 on that account. It is nothing to say, that the immense ex 

 tent of fertile territory yet to be occupied by an unborn 

 population, will delay the day of ruin. It will delay, but it 

 cannot prevent it. The traveller, at the source of the Mis 

 sissippi, in the very heart of the American continent, may 

 predict with perfect certainty, that, however protracted the 

 wanderings of the rivulet at his feet, it must reach the ocean 

 at last. In proportion as the nearer lands are occupied, it is 

 very evident that the region to w r hich emigration will be 

 directed must of necessity be more distant. The pressure of 

 population, therefore, will augment in the Atlantic States, and 

 the motives to removal become gradually weaker. Indeed, 

 at the present rate of extension, the circle of occupied terri 

 tory must, before many generations, be so enormously en 

 larged, that emigration will be confined wholly to the Western 

 States. Then, and not till then, will come the trial of the 

 American constitution ; and until that trial has been past, it 

 is mere nonsense to appeal to its stability. 



&quot; Nor is this period of trial apparently very distant. At 

 the present ratio of increase, the population of the United 

 States doubles itself in about twenty-four years ; so that in 

 half a century it will amount to about fifty millions, of which 

 ten millions will be slaves, or, at all events, a degraded caste, 

 cut off from all the rights and privileges of citizenship. Be- 



