Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
There will consequently be less of personal influence on the side of
the former than of the latter. The members of the legislative,
executive, and judiciary departments of thirteen and more States, the
justices of peace, officers of militia, ministerial officers of
justice, with all the county, corporation, and town officers, for three
millions and more of people, intermixed, and having particular
acquaintance with every class and circle of people, must exceed, beyond
all proportion, both in number and influence, those of every
description who will be employed in the administration of the federal
system. Compare the members of the three great departments of the
thirteen States, excluding from the judiciary department the justices
of peace, with the members of the corresponding departments of the
single government of the Union; compare the militia officers of three
millions of people with the military and marine officers of any
establishment which is within the compass of probability, or, I may
add, of possibility, and in this view alone, we may pronounce the
advantage of the States to be decisive. If the federal government is to
have collectors of revenue, the State governments will have theirs
also. And as those of the former will be principally on the seacoast,
and not very numerous, whilst those of the latter will be spread over
the face of the country, and will be very numerous, the advantage in
this view also lies on the same side. I
t is true, that the Confederacy is to possess, and may exercise, the
power of collecting internal as well as external taxes throughout the
States; but it is probable that this power will not be resorted to,
except for supplemental purposes of revenue; that an option will then
be given to the States to supply their quotas by previous collections
of their own; and that the eventual collection, under the immediate
authority of the Union, will generally be made by the officers, and
according to the rules, appointed by the several States. Indeed it is
extremely probable, that in other instances, particularly in the
organization of the judicial power, the officers of the States will be
clothed with the correspondent authority of the Union.
Should it happen, however, that separate collectors of internal revenue
should be appointed under the federal government, the influence of the
whole number would not bear a comparison with that of the multitude of
State officers in the opposite scale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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