ers, for having so often appeared before
them on the subject of the lately proposed form of government. It has been
treated with that freedom which is necessary for the investigation of
truth, and with no greater freedom. On such a subject, extensive in its
nature, and important in its consequences, the examination has necessarily
been long, and the topicks treated of have been various. We have been
obliged to take a cursory, but not inaccurate view of the circumstances of
mankind under the different forms of government to support the different
parts of our argument. Permit me now to bring into one view the principal
propositions on which the reasoning depends.

It is shewn from the example of the most commercial republick of
antiquity, which was never disturbed by a sedition for above seven hundred
years, and at last yielded after a violent struggle to a foreign enemy, as
well as from the experience of our own country for a century and an half,
that the republican, more than any other form of government is made of
durable materials. It is shewn from a variety of proof, that one
consolidated government is inapplicable to a great extent of country; is
unfriendly to the rights both of persons and property, which rights always
adhere together; and that being contrary to the interest of the extreme of
an empire, such a government can be supported only by power, and that
commerce is the true bond of union for a free state. It is shewn from a
comparison of the different parts of the proposed plan, that it is such a
consolidated government.

By article 3, section 2, Congress are empowered to appoint courts with
authority to try civil causes of every kind, and even offences against
particular states. By the last clause of Article 1, section 8, which
defines their legislative powers, they are authorised to make laws for
carrying into execution all the "powers vested by this constitution in the
government of the United States, or in _any department_ or officer
thereof;" and by article 6, the judges in every state are to be bound by
the laws of Congress. It is therefore a complete consolidation of all the
states into one, however diverse the parts of it may be. It is also shewn
that it will operate unequally in the different states, taking from some
of them a greater share of wealth; that in this last respect it will
operate more to the injury of this commonwealth than of any state in the
union; and that by reason of its inequalit