A Short Constitutional History of the United States

Cover A Short Constitutional History of the United States

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV First Principles (Continued) The principle being established that a government must possess powers adequate to the ends which it seeks to attain, it follows that the specification of these powers, either directly by enumeration, or impliedly by administration, will be largely a matter of expediency. The p

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roblem is practically a political one, which must be solved in the best manner possible from time to time. But the problem involves, as Madison expresses it, " questions of a very delicate nature." Throughout " The Federalist " the national government is usually termed the Confederation or the Confederacy, for the word " national," in the sense in which it is now employed, did not come into common use until after 1860. One of the questions of a very delicate nature of which Madison speaks, is of the right of the federal government to coerce a state in case of its secession. He offers no direct answer to the problem ; he conceives of the Constitution as a compact between the states, and that if the time ever should come when a member of the Union would attempt to secede, it would " find it a difficult task to answer the multiplied and important infractions " with which it might be confronted. This means, if it means anything, that the difficulties which the secession of a state would entail upon it would be so great as practically to prevent secession. The authors of " The Federalist " relied upon the provision in the Constitution for its amendment as a gre- ventive of secession.2 The opponents of the Constitution reiterated their fears of the abuse of power by the general government. The answer of " The Federalist " is comprehensive and complete: that in government it is " a received and well- founded maxim, that where no other circumstances affect the case, the... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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