Josiah Quincy. He speaks
of the States as enjoying "_the exclusive possession of sovereignty_"
over their own territory, calls the United States "the American
Confederacy," and says, "The only _parties to the Constitution_,
contemplated by it originally, were the _thirteen confederated States_."
And again: "As between the original States, the representation rests on
_compact and plighted faith_; and your memorialists have no wish that
that compact should be disturbed, or that plighted faith in the
slightest degree violated."
It is satisfactory to know that in the closing year of his life, when
looking retrospectively, with judgment undisturbed by any extraneous
influence, he uttered views of the Government which must stand the test
of severest scrutiny and defy the storms of agitation, for they are
founded on the rock of truth. In letters written and addresses delivered
during the Administration of Mr. Fillmore, he repeatedly applies to the
Constitution the term "compact," which, in 1833, he had so vehemently
repudiated. In his speech at Capon Springs, Virginia, in 1851, he says:
"If the South were to violate any part of the Constitution
intentionally and systematically, and persist in so doing year
after year, and no remedy could be had, would the North be any
longer bound by the rest of it? And if the North were,
deliberately, habitually, and of fixed purpose, to disregard one
part of it, would the South be bound any longer to observe its
other obligations?.
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