I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen [its
authors]; but, sir, give me leave to demand, What right had they
to say, _We, the people_? My political curiosity, exclusive of
my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask,
Who authorized them to speak the language of '_We, the people_,'
instead of _We, the States_? States are the characteristics and
the soul of a confederation. If the States be not the agents of
this compact, it must be one great consolidated national
government of the people of all the States."[38]
Again, on the next day, with reference to the same subject, he said:
"When I asked that question, I thought the meaning of my interrogation
was obvious. The fate of this question and of America may depend on
this. Have they said, We, the States? Have they made a proposal of a
compact between States? If they had, this would be a confederation: it
is otherwise most clearly a consolidated government. The question turns,
sir, on that poor little thing--the expression, 'We, the people,'
instead of the States of America."[39]
The same difficulty arose in other minds and in other conventions.
The scruples of Mr. Adams were removed by the explanations of others,
and by the assurance of the adoption of the amendments thought
necessary--especially of that declaratory safeguard afterward embodied
in the tenth amendment--to be referred to hereafter.
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