Calhoun is alluding to the question that was debated in the Constitutional Convention between the Federalist and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalist wanted a consolidated government centered around the concept of Nationalism as was typical of a European State and the Anti-Federalists desired to to maintain a confederated republic centered around the new concept of federalism in which the central government's powers would be few and defined. The States would retain all powers not delegated to the central government under a compact among the free, sovereign and independent States. Slavery was a subtitle to the real debate over the nature of the Union as a compact among the states rather than the creation of a national state.