Essays on the Constitution of the United States: Published during its Discussion by the People, 1787-1788
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Essays on the Constitution of the United States: Published during its Discussion by the People, 1787-1788
Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; United States. Constitution
Will this consolidated republic, if established, in its exercise beget
such confidence and compliance, among the citizens of these states, as to
do without the aid of a standing army? I deny that it will. The
malcontents in each state, who will not be a few, nor the least important,
will be exciting factions against it—the fear of a dismemberment of some
of its parts, and the necessity to enforce the execution of revenue laws
(a fruitful source of oppression) on the extremes and in the other
districts of the government, will incidentally and necessarily require a
permanent force, to be kept on foot: will not political security, and even
the opinion of it, be extinguished? Can mildness and moderation exist in a
government where the primary incident in its exercise must be force? Will
not violence destroy confidence, and can equality subsist where the
extent, policy, and practice of it will naturally lead to make odious
distinctions among citizens?
The people who may compose this national legislature from the southern
states, in which, from the mildness of the climate, the fertility of the
soil, and the value of its productions, wealth is rapidly acquired, and
where the same causes naturally lead to luxury, dissipation, and a passion
for aristocratic distinction; where slavery is encouraged, and liberty of
course less respected and protected; who know not what it is to acquire
property by their own toil, nor to economize with the savings of
industry—will these men, therefore, be as tenacious of the liberties and
interests of the more northern states, where freedom, independence,
industry, equality and frugality are natural to the climate and soil, as
men who are your own citizens, legislating in your own state, under your
inspection, and whose manners and fortunes bear a more equal resemblance
to your own?
It may be suggested, in answer to this, that whoever is a citizen of one
state is a citizen of each, and that therefore he will be as interested in
the happiness and interest of all, as the one he is delegated from; but
the argument is fallacious, and, whoever has attended to the history of
mankind, and the principles which bind them together as parents, citizens,
or men, will readily perceive it. These principles are, in their exercise,
like a pebble cast on the calm surface of a river—the circles begin in the
center, and are small, active, and forcible, but as they depart from that
point, they lose their force, and vanish into calmness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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