lative question among philosophers and wise
men, whether foreign commerce is of real advantage to any country; that
is, whether the luxury, effeminacy, and corruptions, which are
introduced along with it, are counterbalanced by the convenience and
wealth which it brings. But the decision of this question is of very
little importance to us. We have abundant reason to be convinced, that
the spirit of trade which pervades these states, is not to be
restrained. It behooves us, then, to establish just principles; and this
can not, any more than other matters of national concerns, be done by
thirteen heads differently constructed and organized. The necessity,
therefore, of a controlling power is obvious; and why it should be
withheld is beyond my comprehension."

A little earlier than this, Washington had been engaged in grave
discussions at Mount Vernon, with commissioners who had been appointed
by the assemblies of Virginia and Maryland, to form a compact in
relation to the navigation of the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers, and a
part of Chesapeake bay. During the conference he suggested the idea of a
conjunction of the several states in arrangements of a commercial
nature, over which the Congress, under the Articles of Confederation,
had no control. In this suggestion lay the kernel of future most
important action, which finally led to the great result of a convention
of the states, the abandonment of the old confederation, and the
adoption of the Federal Constitution.

But earlier far than this, one of the most extraordinary young men of
the last century--indeed, of any century--had, with wonderful sagacity,
perceived the evils that would naturally be developed by a weak central
government, and had pleaded eloquently with the people to give the
Congress more power. That young man was Alexander Hamilton, who, as
early as 1781, put forth his views on the subject in a series of
papers, under the title of _The Continentalist_. He was then only
twenty-four years of age, yet no man in the country appeared to have
clearer views of what constituted true national policy, than he. Indeed,
he spoke with the wisdom of a statesman of threescore years; and with
Washington and others he deeply lamented the mischievous effects of the
practical influence of the doctrine of state rights in its ultra phases.
"An extreme jealousy of power," he said, "is the attendant of all
popular revolutions, and has seldom been without its evils. It is to
t