And here I would make this enquiry of those worthy characters who composed a part of the late Federal Convention. I am sure they were fully impressed with the necessity of forming a great consolidated Government, instead of a confederation. That this is a consolidated Government is demonstrably clear, and the danger of such a Government, is, to my mind, very striking.
States are the characteristics, and the soul of a confederation.
If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great consolidated National Government of the people of all the States. I need not take much pains to show, that the principles of this system, are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. It is not a democracy, wherein the people retain all their rights securely. Had these principles been adhered to, we should not have been brought to this alarming transition, from a Confederacy to a consolidated Government. We have no detail of those great considerations which, in my opinion, ought to have abounded before we should recur to a government of this kind.