Then will be the time for reverting to the
precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the
Constitution, to form again a _more perfect Union, by dissolving
that which could no longer bind_, and to leave the separated
parts to be reunited by the law of political gravitation to the
center."
Perhaps it is unfortunate that, in earlier and better times, when the
prospect of serious difficulties first arose, a convention of the States
was not assembled to consider the relations of the various States and
the Government of the Union. As time rolled on, the General Government,
gathering with both hands a mass of undelegated powers, reached that
position which Mr. Jefferson had pointed out as an intolerable evil--the
claim of a right to judge of the extent of its own authority. Of those
then participating in public affairs, it was apparently useless to ask
that the question should be submitted for decision to the parties to the
compact, under the same conditions as those which controlled the
formation and adoption of the Constitution; otherwise, a convention
would have been utterly fruitless, for at that period, when aggression
for sectional aggrandizement had made such rapid advances, it can
scarcely be doubted that more than a fourth, if not a majority of
States, would have adhered to that policy which had been manifested for
years in the legislation of many States, as well as in that of the
Federal Government.
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