8167. STATES, Respect for.—
I do not
think it for the interest of the General Government
itself, and still less of the Union at
large, that the State governments should be
so little respected as they have been. However,
I dare say that in time all these as well
as their central government, like the planets
revolving round their common sun, acting
and acted upon according to their respective
weights and distances, will produce that
beautiful equilibrium on which our Constitution
is founded, and which, I believe, it will
exhibit to the world in a degree of perfection,
unexampled but in the planetary system itself.
The enlightened statesman, therefore,
will endeavor to preserve the weight and influence
of every part, as too much given to
any member of it would destroy the general
equilibrium.—
To Peregrine Fitzhugh. Washington ed. iv, 217.
Ford ed., vii, 210.
(Pa.,
1798)
