to be a mere sketch in which omitted details were to be supplied and the general terms and phrases to be reduced to their proper details, is demonstrated by the use made of them in the Convention. They were taken up & referred to a Come. of the whole in that sense; discussed one by one; referred occasionally to special Coms., to Comes. of detail on special points, at length to a Come. to digest & report the draft of a Constn: and finally to a Come. of arrangement and diction.
On this review of the whole subject, candour discovers no ground for the charge, that the Resolns. contemplated a Govt. materially different from or more national than that in which they terminated, and certainly no ground for the charge of consolidating views in those from whom the Resolns. proceeded.
What then is the ground on which the charge rests? It cd. not be on a plea that the plan of Mr. R. gave unlimited powers to the proposed Governt: for the plan expressly aimed at a specification, & of course a limitation of the powers.
It cd. not be on the supremacy of the general authority over the separate authorities, for that supremacy, as already noticed, is more fully & emphatically established by the text of the Constitution?
It cd. not be on the proposed ratification, by the people instead of the States for that is the ratification on wch. the Constn. is founded.
The Charge must rest on the term “National” prefixed to the organized Depts. in the propositions of Mr. R. yet how easy is it to acct. for the use of the term witht taking it in a consolidating sense?
In the 1st. place. It contradistinguished the proposed Govt from the Confederacy which it was to supersede.
2. As the System was to be a new & compound one a nondescript without a technical appellation for it, the term “National” was very naturally suggested by its national features. 1. in being estabd. not by the authority of State Legs but by the original authy. of the people 2. in its organization into Legisl. Ex. & Judy. Departs.: and 3. in its action on the people of the States immediately, and not on the Govts. of the States, as in a Confederacy.
But what alone would justify & acct. for the application of the term National to the proposed Govt. is that it wd. possess, exclusively all the attributes of a natl. Govt. in its relations with other nations including the most essential one, of regulating foreign Commerce; with an effective means of fulfilling the obligs. & responsiby of the U.S. to other nations.[1] Hence it was that the term natl. was at once
- ↑ Crossed out: “Even under the Confedy the States in their U. Character were considered and called a nation; altho their Treaties & transactions with foreign nations depended for their execution on the will of the several States, & altho the regulation of foreign commerce even remained with the States.”
