To Presume A Want Of

The Laws Of Certain States . . . Give An Ownership In The Service Of Negroes As Personal Property . . . . But Being Men, By The Laws Of God And Nature, They Were Capable Of Acquiring Liberty - And When The Captor In War . . . Thought Fit To Give Them Liberty, The Gift Was Not Only Valid, But Irrevocable.

It Is By Far The Safer Course To Lay [considerations Of The Future] Altogether Aside; And To Confine Our Attention Wholly To The Nature And Extent Of The Powers As They Are Delineated In The Constitution. Everything Beyond This, Must Be Left To The Prudence And Firmness Of The People; Who, As They Will Hold The Scales In Their Own Hands, It Is To Be Hoped, Will Always Take Care To Preserve The Constitutional Equilibrium Between The General And State Governments.

Nothing Is More Natural To Men In Office, Than To Look With Peculiar Deference Towards That Authority To Which They Owe Their Official Existence.

The Proposed Constitution, So Far From Implying An Abolition Of The State Governments, Makes Them Constituent Parts Of The National Sovereignty, By Allowing Them A Direct Representation In The Senate, And Leaves In Their Possession Certain Exclusive And Very Important Portions Of Sovereign Power. This Fully Corresponds, In Every Rational Import Of The Terms, With The Idea Of A Federal Government.

This Power Ought To Be Coextensive With All The Possible Combinations Of Such Circumstances; And Ought To Be Under The Direction Of The Same Councils Which Are Appointed To Preside Over The Common Defense.