Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
A second observation to be made is that the immediate object of the
federal Constitution is to secure the union of the thirteen primitive
States, which we know to be practicable; and to add to them such other
States as may arise in their own bosoms, or in their neighborhoods,
which we cannot doubt to be equally practicable. The arrangements that
may be necessary for those angles and fractions of our territory which
lie on our northwestern frontier, must be left to those whom further
discoveries and experience will render more equal to the task.
Let it be remarked, in the third place, that the intercourse throughout
the Union will be facilitated by new improvements. Roads will
everywhere be shortened, and kept in better order; accommodations for
travelers will be multiplied and meliorated; an interior navigation on
our eastern side will be opened throughout, or nearly throughout, the
whole extent of the thirteen States. The communication between the
Western and Atlantic districts, and between different parts of each,
will be rendered more and more easy by those numerous canals with which
the beneficence of nature has intersected our country, and which art
finds it so little difficult to connect and complete.
A fourth and still more important consideration is, that as almost
every State will, on one side or other, be a frontier, and will thus
find, in regard to its safety, an inducement to make some sacrifices
for the sake of the general protection; so the States which lie at the
greatest distance from the heart of the Union, and which, of course,
may partake least of the ordinary circulation of its benefits, will be
at the same time immediately contiguous to foreign nations, and will
consequently stand, on particular occasions, in greatest need of its
strength and resources. It may be inconvenient for Georgia, or the
States forming our western or northeastern borders, to send their
representatives to the seat of government; but they would find it more
so to struggle alone against an invading enemy, or even to support
alone the whole expense of those precautions which may be dictated by
the neighborhood of continual danger. If they should derive less
benefit, therefore, from the Union in some respects than the less
distant States, they will derive greater benefit from it in other
respects, and thus the proper equilibrium will be maintained
throughout.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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