quered people before the revolution, and belonged to Georgia, I affirm there is nothing that has changed that condition. If there is, let the general government shew it. Every one knows that the Union is a creature of the states, and acts by nothing but written powers. If it has a right to control the Indians within the limits of states, produce the authority, and the question is at rest. But if it should not, and Georgia does not resist, at every hazard, this high-handed usurpation, it will afford one memorable instance, at least, how short the time, in which the lessons of the revolution may be forgotten, and how lamentably soon the gallant blood and courage of patriots may become extinct in their offspring. (No. 5.) "Happy will you be if you escape the fate of those nations, who, omitting to resist their oppressors in limine, or negligently suffering their rights to be wheedled away from them, have at length groaned under intolerable despotism. And those nations, who have gone in search of grandeur, power, and splendour, have also fallen a sacrifice to the pursuit, and become the victims of their own folly. While they were acquiring those visionary blessings, they lost their freedom.”—Patrick Henry on the Federal Constitution. IF there is one folly more than another that seems to inflame the unsettled desires of the general government, it is its restless pursuit after grandeur. Reckless of the true principles of its construction there is an eager longing after the splendour of other nations, unworthy of a judgment corrected by the plainness of political equality, and wholly at points with that strength and simplicity which lay bedded at the deep foundations of our institutions. Without the experience of former times, which is constantly beaming upon our path, and shining with a light that cannot beguile, we should be savingly admonished by the lessons that are forever passing under the eye of the most common observation. What are luxury and extravagance? When have they softened a pang, or heightened a rational enjoyment? By their indulgence what individual has increased the enduring nature of his comforts or the lasting respect of his character? Where have they afforded one adornment even to the exterior of manliness, or added a single grace to the native dignity of virtue? If upon individuals they oftener confer misery and disgrace than honor and success, such must always be the result to communities, for communities are made up of individuals and there can be no two kinds of morality, the one suited to the constituent and the other to society; whatever binds the parts as a moral principle is universally applicable to the whole.-Vice and virtue can never be made to change places by reason of the character on which they act or the difference of circumstances to which they refer. If then our constitution professes to eschew the ostentatious and prodigal habits of the old world, and enjoins upon the citizens a strict observance of republican simplicity, as opposed to "titles of nobility or honor," to the dazzling splendour of royalty with all its glittering pageantry, by what right are the hard earnings of a fru gal people taken to support an exactly different course in the unmeaning parade of the general government and the still more disgusting pomp of its highest officers.* Odious as is this growing folly of the general government, it is not by any means its greatest vice. Its rage for magnificence is not even compensated in a regard for moderation; and when to the want of this last is added a total destitution of principle, there should be no bounds to the resentment of a virtuous people. The Federal institution, designed for great and noble objects. has been grossly perverted to the purposes of personal ambition and to unholy conflicts for office and power. These are serious charges, but they are supported by truths still more solemn. Who does not recollect the late restless strivings for the office of President, that agitated the bosom of society from its surface down to its most secret recess. As in the natural, so in the moral world ; while the tempest rages no one looks to its ravages, but when it is over and gone, then a melancholy survey commences. What has been left to our contemplation from that memorable commotion ? Let candour make the answer. What character has been spared? What virtue escaped unslandered? What intrigues and arts were left untried ? What combinations, looking to any other object that the public good, were not formed? What previous and long-tried political axioms were not violated, and the solid and wholesome connections formed thereon, dissolved? And in what did the mighty struggle end? Was it not in an open, and, to the shame of the nation, a successful and corrupt traffic for that high office? Who now holds it? Is it the man of those consistent political principles belonging to the great mass of the people, and springing from republican orthodoxy or rather, is it not the man who spared no pains to grasp In * These reflections have been suggested by a few facts which the people ought to know-and I am sorry my limits will only allow me to furnish but a few. The capitol of the Union has cost the nation millions of money, and it is the boast of the country that there is not, for its purpose, such another building in the world, that it outstrips in its structure, form, finish, and furniture all the regal show of Europe, and has not its rival in any other part of the globe. Lately something like one hundred thousand dollars has been appropriated to build a Porch to this grand edifice, and five hundred dollars was actually given for merely drawing the plan of it, a sum equal in value to seven-tenths of the dwellings of the freemen of families throughout the United States.In former administrations, the sum of fourteen thousand dollars was appropriated every four years to purchase furniture for the President; it has now swelled to the enormous sum of $30,000. $50,000 has been voted to build Porches to the President's Palace. The President is furnished from the public treasury with his billiard and other gaming tables. His chairs cost $1200 a dozen; his looking-glasses $1800 a piece; his carpet 1800, and all his other supplies at the same extravagant rates. what does this differ from royalty? Does this become a republican people? Does this sort with a "Constitution" that was so solicitous about the "plainness and republican simplicity" of our people, that it was really fearful they would "accept titles of nobility or honour, presents and pensions from foreign Emperors, Kings and Princes, and in order to prevent such childish hankerings, sought and obtained for that object, a special "amendment?" The, income to the general government, from the State of Georgia, is upwards of a million of dollars, and what does she get for it? Nothing-not even satisfaction for her militia claims, which were for defence, one of the avowed and indeed the only legitimate objects of the Union. It is not however a matter astonishment, seeing what uses the general government has for its money. But I take this occasion to predict, and I wish all to remember the prophecy, that such is the extravagance of the Federal government, that in turo years from this date, it will be brought to the necessity of seeking LARGE LOANS or laying DIRECT TAXES. his object, accommodated himself to all opinions, addressed 'himself to all interests, pryed into all secrets, tried all means, insinuated himself into every favour, and after having closed the contest with an infamous bartering, in a most shrinking modesty and withering diffidence, he strove to fly from the overpowering charge, merely because there was not a distinct expression of public opinion, and because the people, to whose every wish his whole soul was devoted, had not spoken in a language clearly intelligible to his democratic feelings! With such facts, and with such a man at the head of the nation, his elevation procured by such means, how wide of the truth stand the declarations I have made? But is this all? Who has attended to the measures of the general government for the last ten years and discovered not the selfishness that enters into every view? Is a President to be elected? The pub、 lic measures before Congress look not to the "general welfare," but to his private and political advancement, and this not without the expectation of reward. Does a state seek admission into the Union? The question is not what benefit it will derive, but whose interest will it subserve. States are formed or rejected, not on account of the blessings of our free institutions, but according to the strength or weakness they may impart to the projects of contending parties. Is a great national road about to be [unconstitutionally] established? No inquiry is made as to its advantages; it is kept up as a barrel before the whale, until the people forgetting their true interests and actuated by sordid motives, fall into the snare, and then the artful boast is, we have "hushed the South or" secured the West." Are not all these things true, and what is the rational inference to be drawn from them? Is it that all is pure, all is upright, all is correct? Such men as Mr. Rush, Dwight and Ninnian Edwards may think so, but I will venture to say no horest man is of that opinion. But notwithstanding all this is constantly perpetrated in the face of the nation, yet there are those who never cease to resound political hallelujahs in honor of the Union. It has conducted the nation, say they, to undying fame, and inexpressible grandeur! It has developed in its march the most incalculable resources, and is leading to the most inexhaustible wealth! Now in all this, there is a most palpable, if not criminal mistake, because it robs the states of their separate merit in this work, and degrades their character at the expense of truth. The Union is a derivative creature, made up of shreds and patches gratuitously yielded by the different states: it has the broad mantle of New-York, and the little strutting sham of Delaware. Dependent entirely upon the states for its existence, it must entirely catch the colour of their destiny. If prosperous, the Union will be properous; if depressed, the Union will be depressed. Instead then of taking the credit of the increasing strength and fortunes of the aggregate country, it all belongs to the individual states. It is their wealth, it is their population, it is their mild and frugal governments, their just and equal laws, their love of order and religion, their regard for morality and science, their industry, perseverance and economy, and it is their peopling the wilds of America and brightening its wilderness with the smiles of plenty that constitute the borrowed greatness of the Union. The laws of a nation shew their effects upon society. If the general government claims the credit of this wide-spread prosperity, let her point to the acts that have produced it. When we open her statute book, we find, beside those measures occasioning so much jealousy and distrust among the states, little else than the profuse management of revenue, wielded by an artful patronage in pursuit of ambitious schemes, or quandered by a wasteful fancy upon splendid baubles. 16 was Some reflections naturally arise from the subjects I am discussing, and although they are made to precede the respective topics presented, yet, in reference to the general government, it is not so much my intention to excite improper prejudice, as it is to moderate undue partiality. Let the Union adhere to its original and plighted end, and it can have no greater friend than Georgia. With these remarks, I proceed to a continuation of the subject of the last essay. I have already stated that the articles of confederation were found too weak for a state of peace; they were called a "rope of sand," and unless something stronger could be substituted, the Union must necessarily dissolve, and the states return to their primitive condition, liable to all the consequences of an elementary existence, and obnoxious to all the forebodings of croaking politicians. The most clamorous evil under which the confederation labored, was a total incapacity to discharge those solemn engagements growing out of the burthens of the war; and to relieve the country from this afflicting circumstance, General Washington and others prevailed upon Congress to propose to the states a system, the avowed object of which WHOLE DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES." This proposition was not attended to, and this state of things continued, daily increasing in doubt and dismay until the year '86, when another attempt was made to recommend to the states the revenue system of '83. This effort was also abortive, and such was the extreme anxiety of the community, that the public mind had reached a state of intense agitation and anguish, as may be well evinced by the loss of moderation on the part of the immortal Washington, who, in a moment of unguarded temper, declared that "illiberality, jealousy, and local policy mixed too much in the public councils for the good government of the Union." In the fall of 286, the State of Virginia invited her sister states to a conference, at Annapolis, with a view to consider the state of the Union, and to promote an uniform system of government. Of the thirteen states, but ive sent delegates on that occasion, so that they adjourned without effecting any thing further than recommending another convention, at Philadelphia, in the ensuing month of May. Accordingly, at that time, twelve states assembled, (Rhode Island refusing altogether any concern in the arrangement,) and commenced their operations. Several projects of a constitution, to the number of four, were submitted by different members of the convention. Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Charles Pinkney of South Carolina, Alexander Hamilton of New-York, and William Patterson of New-Jersey, were the persons who offered respective plans. The three first were similar in principle, though varying in the degrees of power: th y were for au "energetic government," partaking more of the national than the federal character, and tending strongly to consolidation. The last, Mr. Patterson's scheme, was ΤΟ OBTAIN SUBSTANTIAL FUNDS FOR FUNDING THE This merely intended to remedy the defect of the articles of confederation, the only business as he contended, for which they had assembled. last was considered as not sufficiently comprehensive for the objects of the meeting. Mr. Pinkney's and Hamilton's were too strong, and therefore Mr. Randolph's, the mildest, was chosen as the one that should constitute the basis of their deliberations. We have already seen, in the formation of the articles of confederation, what was the character and violence of the struggle in relation to territory; and the same perilous spasms were again dreaded and expected in the progressive labour of the Constitution. The eleventh article of Mr. Randolph's project contained the following resolution," that a republican government, and the territory of each state (except in the instance of voluntary junction of government and territory) ought to be guarantied by the U. States to each state. This article formed the platform of all the discussions in the convention on the subject of territory and Indian affairs; but finally, after much and long debating, the draft of a constitution was reported to the house, and the proceedings on this subject, then assumed the following specific shape. This clause, to wit, "Congress shall have power to regus late commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states," was under debate: it was moved to add to this section and with Indians within the limits of any State, not subject to the laws thereof.† which was rejected, and the words "with Indian tribes," only, inserted as it is now found in the Constitution. How far the positive exclusion of a principle, will afterwards secure the possession of a right, I leave to more refined casuists than belong to the honest advocates of state rights. Having gotten over this section, the following proposition was moved by the state of Maryland. "The Legislature of the United State shall have power to erect new states within as well as without the territory claimed by the several states, or either of them, and admit the same into the Union provided, that nothing in this constitution shall be construed to affect the claim of the United States to vacant lands ceded to them by the late treaty of peace." This was also rejected, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. (the former malcontents) alone voting in the affir mative. The object of this resolution must be clearly perceived; it was to obtain a recognition of the principle that all the vacant lands ceded by the treaty, whether within or without the states, belonged to the Union. Its rejection was a negative decisiou of the point, against the principle. But the convention not yet satisfied with such decision, adopted the following section. "New States may be admitted by Congress into the Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State without the consent of the Legisla ture of such State, as well as of Congress." This at once settled the right of Jurisdiction and Territory, within the limits of the respective States. But lest there might yet remain a doubt, other provisions were added to remove all future difficulties. The first in order was in the following words, "nor shall any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts thereof, without the consent of such States, as well as of Congress." To this clause, it was moved to add the follow * Journal Federal Convention, page 70. Ibid, page 309. + Ibid, page 277. |