The use of force against a State would look
more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment, and
would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of
all previous compacts by which it might be bound."
Mr. Hamilton, who, if I were to express a judgment by way of comparison,
I would say was the master intellect of the age in which he lived, whose
mind seemed to penetrate profoundly every question with which he
grappled, and who seldom failed to exhaust the subject which he
treated--Mr. Hamilton, in speaking of the various powers necessary to
maintain a Government, came to clause four:
"4. Force, by which may be understood a _coercion of laws, or coercion
of arms_. Congress have not the former, except in few cases. In
particular States, this coercion is nearly sufficient; though he held
it, in most cases, not entirely so. A certain portion of military force
is absolutely necessary in large communities. Massachusetts is now
feeling this necessity, and making provision for it. But how can this
force be exerted on the States collectively? It is impossible. It
amounts to a war between the parties. Foreign powers, also, will not be
idle spectators. They will interpose; the confusion will increase; and a
dissolution of the Union will ensue."
The consequence was, the proposition was lost. In support of this same
idea of community independence, which I have suggested, the argument
upon the proposition least likely to have exhibited it, that to give
power to restrain the slave-trade, shows the Northern and Southern men
all arguing and presenting different views, yet concurred in this, that
there could be no power to restrain a State from importing what she
pleased.
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