4806. LOUISIANA, The Constitution and.—[continued].
There is a difficulty in
this acquisition which presents a handle to
the malcontents among us, though they have
not yet discovered it. Our confederation is
certainly confined to the limits established by
the Revolution. The General Government
has no powers but such as the Constitution
has given it; and it has not given it a power
of holding foreign territory, and still less of incorporating
it into the Union. An amendment
of the Constitution seems necessary for
this. In the meantime, we must ratify and
pay our money, as we have treated, for a
thing beyond the Constitution, and rely on
the nation to sanction an act done for its
great good, without its previous authority.—
To John Dickinson.
Ford ed., viii, 262.
(M.
Aug. 1803)
