Washington sentinel., 1854-05-04

eral royernment. With this aim, and to this |
end the fathers of the republic framed the
Constitution, in and by which the independent
and sovereign States united themselves for GER
tain specified objects and purposes, and for
those only, leaving all powers not therein set
forth as conferred on one or another OF the
three great departments-th Legislative, the
executive, and the judicial-indubitably with
the States And when the people of the seve
raj States had in their State conventions, and
thus alone, given effect and force to the Con,
stitution, and, not content that any doubt should
in future arise as to the scope and character |
of this act, they engraited thereon the exphcit
declaration that g the powers not delegated 10 |
the United States by the Constitution, nor pro-
hibited by it to the States are reserved TO
the States respectively, Or TO the people,
can it be controverted that the great mass
of the business of government, that in
volved in the social relations the internal ar
rangements Of the body polite, the mental and
moral culture of men, the development of local
resources of wealth, the punishment of crimes
in general, the preservation of order, the relief
of the needy or otherwise unfortunate mem
bers of society, did, in practice, remain with
the States; that none of these objects, of local
concern are by the Constitution expressly or
implicitly prohibited to the States and that
none of them are, by any express language OF
the Constitution, transferred to the United
States? Can it be claimed that any Of these
functions Of local administration and legisla-
tion are vested in the federal government, by
any implication? have never found anything
in the Constitution which is susceptible of
such construction. No one of the enumerated
| powers touches the subject, or has ever re.
mote analogy to it. The powers conferred
upon the United States have reference to fed
eral relations, or to the means of accomplishing
or executing things OF federal relation. So,
| also, Of the same character are the powers
taken away from the States by enumeration.
In either case, the powers granted and the
powers restricted were SO granted or SO re,
stricted, only where it was requisite for the
maintenance of peace and harmony between
the States, or for the purpose Of protecting
| their common interests, and defending their
common sovereignty against aggression from
/ abroad, or insurrection at home.
shall not discuss at length the question Of
power sometimes claimed for the general gov
ernment under the clause of the eighth sec
ton of the Constitution, which gives Congress
the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties,
imposts, and excises, to pay debts and provide
for the common defence and general welfare
of the United States because if it has not
already been settled upon sound reason and
authority it never will be. take the received
and Just construction Of that article, as if writ
ten TO lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
and excises, to provide for the common de-
fence and general welfare. 1t is not sub
stantive general power to provide for the vel
fare Of the United States, but is n limitation
on the grant Of power to raise money by taxes,
duties, andimposts. lfit we're otherwise, all the
rest of the Constitution, consisting OF carefully
enumerated and cautiously-guarded grants Of
specific powers, would have been useless, ifnot
delusiye. 1t would be impossible, in that view,
toescape from theconcusion that these were in
serted only to mislead for the present, and, in
stead of enlightening and defining the pathway
of the future to involve its action In them mazes
of doubtful construction. Such conclusion
the character of the men who framed that sa-
cred instrument will never permit US to form.
Indeed, 10 suppose it susceptible Of any other
| construction, would be to consign all the rights
of the States, aud of the people of the States,
to the mere discretion of Congress, and thus to
clothe the federal government with authority
to control the sovereign States, by which they
would have been dwarfed into provinces or de-
partments, and all sovereignty vested in an
absolute consolidated central power, against
which the spirit of liberty has so often, and in
so many countries, struggled in vain. In my
judgment, you cannot, by tributes to humanity,
make any any adequate compensation Tor the
wrong You would inhict, by removing the
sources Of power and political action from those
who are to be thereby affected. IF the time
shall ever arrive when, for an object appealing
however strongly to our sympathies the dignity
of the States shall bow to the dictation of Con-
gress, by conforming their legislation thereto,
when the power, and majesty, and honor, of
those who created shall become subordinate to
the thing Of their creation, but feebly utter
my apprchensions when | express my firm
conviction that we shall see "the beginning OF
the end"
Fortunately we are not left in doubt as to
the purposes Of the Constitution, any more than
as to its express language; for although the
history of its formation, as recorded in the
Madison papers, shows that the federal govern
ment, in its present form, emerged from the
: conflict of opposing irfuences, which have
continued to divide statesmen from that day to
this, yet the rule of clearly defined powers and
Of strict construction presided over the actual
conclusion and subsequent adoption Of the
Constitution President Madison, in the Fed
eralist" says .The powers delegated by the
proposed Constitution are few and defined.
Those which are to remain in the State gov
ernment are numerous and indefinite. It's the
general governments jurisdiction extends to
certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to
the several States residuary and inviolable
sovereignty over all other objects"
In the same spirit, President Jefferson in
vokes ''the support of the State governments in
all their rights, as the most competent admin
istrations for our domestic concerns and the
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tenden-
ces." And President Jackson said that our
true strength and wisdom are not promoted by
invasions of the rights and powers Of the seye-
raj States, but that, on the contrary, they con-
sst, mot in binding the States more closely to
the centre, but in leaving each more unob-
structed in its proper orbit"
i The trainers Of the Constitution, in refusing
to confer on the federal government any juris-
diction over these purely local objects, in my
judgment, manifested awise forecast and broad
n comprehension Of the true interests of these
objects themselves. 1t is clear that public
charities within the States can be efficiently ad,
ministered only by their authority. The bill
before me comedies this, for it does not commit
the funds it provides to the administration Of