8

ceive the danger which is apprehended by
some, from the exercise of the power in ques-
tion. It appears to us, that the states possess
ample security against any violation of their
rights, in the direct responsibility, which one
branch of congress owe to them, and the local
attachments and feelings of the representatives
of the peoplein the other branch.

The great error attending the investigation
of the powers bestowed by the constituion on
the national government, and what has given
rise to a fastidious opposition to the benefi-
cial exercise of some of those powers, is, that
it has been viewed as a foreign, distinct and
seperatte government. Were we to look ex-
clusively to the written constitutions of each
the conclusion would be a just one, but our
whole system is anomalous—history furnishing
nothing analogous to it. The same population
constitutes the national government and the
governments of the respective states: Hence
the improbability that in the interpretation of
the powers of the former, the rights of the latter
should be overlooked or violated

In the history of our country from the com-
mencement of the revolutionary war to the
present day, did not contradict the supposition
of the power of any form of the general govern-
ment, thus constituted, being exercised so as
to oppress the respective states, is not the idea
too preposterous, to suppose that tht repre-
sentatives from the several states, in congress,