1825. CORRUPTION, Centralization.—
Our country is too large to have all its affairs
directed by a single government. Public servants
at such a distance, and from under the
eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance
of distance, be unable to administer
and overlook all the details necessary for the
good government of the citizens, and the same
circumstance, by rendering detection impossible
to their constituents, will invite the public
agents to corruption, plunder, and waste. And
I do verily believe, that if the principle were
to prevail, of a common law being in force in
the United States (which principle possesses
the general government at once of all the
powers of the State governments, and reduces
us to a single consolidated government ),
it would become the most corrupt
government on the earth.—
To Gideon Granger. Washington ed. iv, 331.
Ford ed., vii, 451.
(M.
1800)
