8792. VETO, Congressional.—
The negative,
proposed to be given to Congress on all
the acts of the several legislatures, is now,
for the first time, suggested to my mind.
Primâ facie I do not like it. It fails in an
essential character, that the hole and the patch
should be commensurate. But this proposes
to mend a small hole by covering the whole
government. Not more than one out of one
hundred State acts concerns the Confederacy.
This proposition, then, in order to give them
one degree of power, which they ought to
have, gives them ninety-nine more which they
ought not to have, upon a presumption that
they will not exercise the ninety-nine. But
upon every act, there will be a preliminary
question, does this concern the Confederacy?
And was there ever a proposition so plain
as to pass Congress without a debate? Their
decisions are almost always wise; they are like
pure metal. But you know of how much dross
this is the result.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 152.
Ford ed., iv, 390.
(P.
June. 1787)
