1514. CONGRESS, Constitutional view of Continental.—
There is one opinion in
your book which I will ask you to reconsider,
because it appears to me not entirely accurate,
and not likely to do good. Page 362, “ Congress
[Continental] is not a legislative, but a
diplomatic body.” Separating into parts the
whole sovereignty of our States, some of these
parts are yielded to Congress. Upon these I
should think them both legislative and executive,
and that would have been judiciary
also, had not the Confederation required them
for certain purposes to appoint a judiciary.
It has accordingly been the decision of our
courts that the Confederation is a part of the
law of the land, and superior in authority to
the ordinary laws, because it cannot be altered
by the legislature of any one State. I doubt
whether they are at all a diplomatic assembly.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. ii, 128.
(P.
1787)
