" [Footnote: Ames,
State Docs. on Federal Relations, No. 5, p. 17; House Exec. Docs.,
19 Cong., 2 Sess., IV., No. 59, pp. 69, 70.] While Georgia was in
this frame of mind, the administration, as we shall see, [Footnote:
Chap, xviii., below.] completed the breach by refusing to permit the
survey of the Indian lands by the state, and thus forced the
followers of Crawford in Georgia to unite with their former
opponents in South Carolina.
Even in North Carolina, where there had been a considerable
sentiment in favor of Adams, [Footnote: Univ. of North Carolina,
James Sprunt Hist. Monographs, No. 2, pp. 79, 88, 106.] the
conviction grew strong that, under such a loose construction of the
Constitution as that which his message advocated, the abolition of
slavery might be effected. The venerable Senator Macon, to whom
Adams had at one time looked as a possible candidate for the vice-
presidency, believed that the spirit of emancipation was stronger
than that for internal improvements; and that the president's loose-
construction doctrine would render it possible for Congress to free
every slave.
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