OF The Constitution OF THR UNITED STATES. BY JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAROLINE, VIRGINIA. WASHINGTON CITY: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY WAY AND GIDEON. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the nineteenth day of November, L. S. in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the fortyeighth, JOHN TAYLOR, of the said District, hath deposited in the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the District of Columbia, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in the words following, to wit: "New Views of the Constitution of the United States. By John Taylor, of Ca"roline, Virginia." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Aet for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and also to the act, entitled "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed the public seal of my office, the day and year aforesaid. EDMUND I. LEE, Clerk of the District Court for the District of Columbia. THAT many eminent and respectable men have ever preferred, and ever will prefer, a consolidated national government to our federal system; that the constitution, under the influence of this predilection, has been erroneously construed; that these constructions are rapidly advancing towards their end, whether it shall be consolidation or disunion; that they will become a source of excessive geographical discord; and that the happiness and prosperity of the United States will be greater under a federal than under a national government, in any form, are the opinions which have suggested the following treatise. If the survey taken of these subjects is not proportioned to their importance, it yet may not be devoid of novelty, nor wholly ineffectual towards attracting more publick attention towards a question involving a mass of consequences either very good or very bad. SECTIONS. NEW VIEWS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. SECTION I THE MEANING OF CERTAIN PRIMARY WORDS. ^ I shall attempt to ascertain the nature of our form of government, and the existence of a project to alter it. Principles and words are the disciplinarians of construction, but the latter require definitions to come at truth. The word union is inexplicit. It may imply either a perfect consolidation; or an association for special purposes, reaching only stated objects, and limited by positive restrictions. Of civil unions, the matrimonial is the most intimate; and yet the parties to it are invested with separate and independent rights. The ancient union of the independent kingdoms of Spain, effected by marriage or conquest, left to each many local privileges. The union of England and Scotland, effected by compact, contains stipulations beyond the power of the united government to alter, especially that in relation to the religion of the latter kingdom. That between England and Ireland is a political consolidation. The latter kingdom did not obtain an establishment of the Roman Catholick religion. Had the majority of the people ed free will, they would have reserved this local right; Roman Catholick religion, like the Presbyterian, would been placed beyond the reach of the united representation iament; just as the reserved rights of the states are placed I the reach of our united representation in Congress; be |