No one has suffered more than Madison from this error,--Madison, justly called the father of the Constitution, who, when its adoption seemed to depend upon the acquiescence of New York, and that State hesitated about joining the Union and proposed to make a conditional acceptance, firmly declared an acceptance was absolute and perpetual, who in No. 39 of the _Federalist_, the work written for the purpose of setting forth the plan of the new government, was no less explicit on the question of nullification, and said: “It is true that in controversies relating to the boundary between the two jurisdictions, the tribunal which is ultimately to decide is to be established under the general government.... Some such tribunal is clearly essential to prevent an appeal to the sword and a dissolution of the compact, ... and it could be safely established under the first alone,”--the General Government. And who later in 1833 wrote to Webster in reference to his speech in answer to Calhoun: “It crushed nullification, and must hasten an abandonment of secession.”[70] His biographers speak of his double dealing in this matter, and even Mr. Hare, in his valuable commentaries on the Constitution, passes the same judgment on his conduct.[71] [70] Bledsoe, _Is Jefferson Davis a Traitor_, p. 173. [71] There are several works on the Constitution by Story, Bancroft, G. T. Curtis, and others, but none of them that we have seen, except the recent work of Professor Hare, that ably treats the matter, has taken up the question of nullification and secession. Apparently the authors did not think such a claim could be made. Some editions recently published have notes on this matter. But, besides Madison, the fair fame of the State of Virginia, to whom, for its being, the nation owes the greatest debt of gratitude, should not be tarnished by the taint of having so soon declared that the laws of the United States and the acts of its officers could be held and treated as null and void by every State that questioned their validity. From Virginia came Washington, the great general under whose command we became a nation, the presiding officer over the convention that made the Constitution, and who as our first President inaugurated and put successfully into operation the national government, assuming no unauthorized powers. To Virginia also is due the plan of the new government proposed in the convention by Randolph, and ably shaped and developed by Madison and Mason. Nor can we overlook the great Chief-Justice, Marshall, who for so many years and from its early existence defined the powers granted to the government, and maintained them with fairness and without encroachment on those of the States.