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out of their state rights, and they could easily make the charge of absurdity, urged against the constitution, recoil upon the states, men by whom it is advanced. But consolidation avows its patriotism by talking of the sovereignty of the people, whilst assailing their state rights, and of its loyalty to the constitution, whilst appealing from it to the supremacy of construction.

Libertas et natale solum!

Fine words, I wonder where you stole 'um,

says Swift. Oh, for a poet to write an epigram upon this, and the following congenial motto:

Words are very pretty things
For patriots as well as kings.

Will it be arrogant to offer him an humble hint?

Libertas! meaning by debate
To pilfer powers froin a state,
And into wholesale bring a nation
At vendue of consolidation.
Libertas, also, does import
The power imperial of a court,
Supremely fixing right and wrong
By constitution of the tongue.
Natale solum, in orthography,
Distinctly intimate geography;
Or they may mean protecting duties,
To money-holders, perfect beauties.
Words, of construction are the mint,
Coining its currency without stint;
The shot with which ambition fights
Gainst reservation of state rights.
Thus liberty and words supply
Accommodations for a

What a miserable poet am I, to want a rhyme! Reader, can you supply it?

Having endeavoured to ascertain the origin, progress, and consequences of a consolidating, concentrating, or national system of government; to ascertain the intention of the constitution by its words, spirit, and ratification; to prove, by the journal of the convention, that a federal government was established and a national government rejected; and to vindicate the wisdom and patriotism of that body, in both these decisions; I have only to add a hope that abler writers may gratify the publick by discussing these important subjects.

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SECTION XVII.

CONSTRUCTION.

Several formidable arguments used to convict the constitution of absurdity, or to subject it to the supremacy of construction, remain to be fairly stated; that, although I am unable to answer them, they may be considered by the publick. The supremacies of construction and legitimacy are said to rest upon foundations equally solid, and to be equally omnipotent, because the word government as naturally inherits power as the word king. As men have natural rights, so have kings and governments; and supremacy not being among the natural rights of men, and yet necessary, must be among those of a government. Upon this ground it was contended in the convention that the creation of a federal government, although the old Congress never made the discovery, revoked the declaration of independence, and reduced the states to corporations. For how could a king be a king, or a government a government, without sovereignty or su premacy, any more than a man could be a man, without spirit or soul? Hence the attempt of the constitution to establish a federal government, without these natural souls, was preposterous, unnatural, and void; and when the government was born, it inherited its natural rights, like any other species of legitimacy. The authority of a great monarch sustains our philologists in taking their stand upon this doctrine. We are informed by Hume, "that at the treaty of the Pyrenees, when Louis the "Fourteenth espoused a Spanish princess, he had renounced every title of succession to every part of the Spanish mo"narchy; and this renunciation had been couched in the most accurate and most precise terms which language could afford. "But on the death of his father-in-law, he retracted his renun❝ciation, and pretended that natural rights could not be annihi "lated by any extorted deed or contract." If the natural rights

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of kings could not be impaired by the constitutions of France, Naples, Spain, and Portugal, the natural rights of governments cannot be impaired by the same papers. If Louis could not divest himself of his natural rights, he could not be divested of them by another. If the plainest words which language could afford, were not sufficient to deprive Louis of his natural rights, words as plain could not establish the reserved rights of the states, and deprive the federal government of its natural supremacy. But as the federal government is not chargeable, like Louis, with having voluntarily imposed any restrictions upon itself, those imposed upon it by the states whilst it was in ventre sa mere, were as outrageous, fraudulent, and void, as if a nation should attempt to disinherit the heir of a king before he was born. Acts of limitation do not run against infants, much less against an embryo; and therefore all limitations imposed upon the federal government before it was born, or in its infancy, be fore it was able to take care of itself, (as a concentrated government can always do, according to Mr. Hamilton,) were contrary to natural right and void.

The natural right of a government to supremacy, is completely sustained by the natural supremacy of construction, as it could not be a government, if this supremacy of construction belonged to people who wished to control it. A profound statesman has written a celebrated treatise to establish the supremacy of construction, not hitherto quoted by the consolidators, out of pity, I presume, for their adversaries, and an aversion to killing honest but deluded people by a single blow. But whether it shall be ascribed to candour, or ar apprehension that it is reserved to be produced if they are hard pressed, I shall suggest it to their recollection, and disclose it to the publick.

The code of rules alluded to, for defining the powers and rights of construction, was evidently written with an eye to the constitution of the United States; although the author, to avoid the censures of the federalists, has concealed his intention under the title of "A tale of a tub," and used the allegory of a last will, intending thereby to insinuate, that the constitution of the United States was liberty's last will. A testator bequeaths a coat to each of his three sons, with directions that they should be

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