1673. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Construction of.—[further continued] .
The judges are practicing
on the Constitution by inferences, analogies,
and sophisms, as they would on an
ordinary law. They do not seem aware that
it is not even a constitution, formed by a
single authority, and subject to a single
superintendence and control; but that it
is a compact of many independent powers,
every single one of which claims an equal
right to understand it, and to require its observance.
However strong the cord of compact
may be, there is a point of tension at
which it will break. A few such doctrinal
decisions, as barefaced as that of the Cohens,
happening to bear immediately on two or
three of the large States, may induce them to
join in arresting the march of government,
and in arousing the co-States to pay some
attention to what is passing, to bring back
the compact to its original principles, or to
modify it legitimately by the express consent
of the parties themselves, and not by the
usurpation of their created agents. They imagine
they can lead us into a consolidate
government, while their road leads directly to
its dissolution.—
To Edward Livingston. Washington ed. vii, 403.
(M.
1825)
See 1684.
