Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-03-17

ticity of their faculties; and l have Of
ten, regarding them as men free and un-
shack.ed in their powers upon that oeca'
sion, wondered what secret sorcery IT
was which appear ed to overawe them, to
curb their noble mettle, and sometimes,
as it we're, to spell.bind them under what
Macbeth calls saucy doubts and tears !"
Mr. Nelson, on "Wednesday, afforded
me glimpse Of that secret-the same
witchery that does now in truth keep the
counsels of the union under lis spells
and incantations did then chill the oul
of that great national convention "lhe
people," said that respectable gentleman,
speaking Of the FIRST PRONUNCIATION OF the
scheme Of that very constitution" the
people recoiled from it with horror
The trainers Of the constitution, there
fore, found the current Of their free OPT
Mons DISTRACTED in the outset by popular
alarm, and thinking it better to attempt
what they could reasonably hope TO effect,
than to run the risk Of doing nothing by
endeavoring to accomplish what they be.
lieved to be best, they struck out that
constitution, which is, with all its faults,
the admiration Of the world, and the pal.
lsdium Of all our rights and liberties. /
remember to have read in an old volImn
a letter from Mr.. Edmund Burke to q
gentleman in Ireland, in which he says,
speaking OF the address and good temper
of The American leaders, They have
made as good government, I think, as
it was possible for men to d. under such
circumstances" But that il might have
been better is evident from the doubts
which continually arise respecting its
construction, aud Gas in the case now
before congress) the latitude it affords to
disputants for disputiug the applicability
OF its provisions, and the extent and va.
liditJ Of the powers of congress uuderit.
Had they been permitted to call the
whole forces of their minds into exercise,
and had they had time to digest the
forms Of that instrument, they would
certainly have done something more de-
terminate and full-they had too much
knowledge of man NOT to be aware that
human craft and human vanity, and hu.
man seifshness would soon be busy at
work MAXI e loopholes in that constitu.
ton TO faSten doubts and double mean
ings in; tina, according to the old bane-
ful habit Of this country. even when in a
colonial state, sur legislatures would be
filed with country lawyers. and that if
every atom Of the constitution were not
pinned down with screws of steel il
would be wrenched and perverted from
an ineligible charter Of right, which
none could misconstrue, to = never fail
ing source Of error, misapprehension
prevarication and dispute; and they
would have guarded against it--they
would not have left it in the power OF
auv sophistry to argue that they had
granted to congress the specific powers
enumerated in that instrument, and yet
withheld from it the Incidental powers
without which those specific powers must
ever be nugatory and non elective
They would not have left it in the power
Of any caviller to impute to them the alb
surdity Of saying, or intending to say,
I" You may -aise armies, but you must
not make a road to march them on; you
may raise money and buy munitions Of
war with it, but you must not make ca.
nal, or road by land or water to convey
them over; you may build forts, but you
and your troops and munitions must find
some other route to them than over roads
OF canals, unless, indeed, when an in
evitable necessity tor it is created BY the
actual existence Of wa ): you shall not
make a ROAD to the forts we authorize you
to build until they are surrounded by an
enemy; you must not construct road
for your armies to march over till an