Would the admission of the right of a State to resume
the grants it had made, have led to the exercise of that right for light
and trivial causes? Surely the evidence furnished by the nations, both
ancient and modern, refutes the supposition. In the language of the
Declaration of Independence, "All experience hath shown that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." Would
not real grievances be rendered more tolerable by the consciousness of
power to remove them; and would not even imaginary wrongs be embittered
by the manifestation of a purpose to make them perpetual? To ask these
questions is to answer them.
The wise and brave men who had, at much peril and great sacrifice,
secured the independence of the States, were as little disposed to
surrender the sovereignty of the States as they were anxious to organize
a General Government with adequate powers to remedy the defects of the
Confederation. The Union they formed was not to destroy the States, but
to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
[Footnote 88: Parsons, "Rights of a Citizen," chap. xx, section 3.]
[Footnote 89: Ratification appended to Articles of Confederation. (See
Elliott's "Debates," vol. i, p. 113.)]
[Footnote 90: "Federalist," No. xl.]
[Footnote 91: Ibid., Nos. xli-xliv.]
[Footnote 92: See Elliott's "Debates," vol.
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