36 MARYLAND.

vernment. During the period when the go-
vernments under which we live took their forms
from the hands of the people, the very act of
moulding and forming governments to suit their
conditions, necessarily rendered the community
familiar with the structures they had erected.
The men of that age are either gone or rapidly
passing away, and with them, it is feared, much
of that experimental knowledge upon the sub-
ject which the occasion so widely diffused The
generation that is rising to succeed them, are
liable to take erroneous ideas upon the subject,
not only from their school books, but from the
highest authorities in our libraries. Already is
the impression widely spread, that the state go-
vernments are merely institutions subordinate
to the General Government—that the govern-
ment under which we live is "is purely nation-
al "—that the constitution is the sure rule of po-
litical faith—that in the constituted authorities,
reposes the actual sovereignty. These ideas are
all erroneous and fraught with danger to our li-
berties.

Written constitutions are useful as land marks
and boundaries, but without intelligence, and
virtue, and vigilence among the people, the best
would prove a broken reed to rest upon. Our
general government instead of having consoli-
dated powers, is entrusted only with special
powers, and is federal rather than national in its
character Our state authorities hold and exer-
cise five highest powers committed to govern-