Hamilton, that it might extend over North America, perhaps over the
whole continent.
Not at all incompatible with these views and purposes was the
recognition of the right of the States to reassume, if occasion should
require it, the powers which they had delegated. On the contrary, the
maintenance of this right was the surest guarantee of the perpetuity of
the Union, and the denial of it sounded the first serious note of its
dissolution. The conservative efficiency of "_State interposition_," for
maintenance of the essential principles of the Union against aggression
or decadence, is one of the most conspicuous features in the debates of
the various State Conventions by which the Constitution was ratified.
Perhaps their ideas of the particular form in which this interposition
was to be made may have been somewhat indefinite; and left to be reduced
to shape by the circumstances when they should arise, but the principle
itself was assumed and asserted as fundamental. But for a firm reliance
upon it, as a sure resort in case of need, it may safely be said that
the Union would never have been formed. It would be unjust to the wisdom
and sagacity of the framers of the Constitution to suppose that they
entirely relied on paper barriers for the protection of the rights of
minorities. Fresh from the defense of violated charters and faithless
aggression on inalienable rights, it might, _a priori_, be assumed that
they would require something more potential than mere promises to
protect them from human depravity and human ambition.
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