ey were afraid that the central Government would, by
this means, acquire a formidable extent of patronage within their own
confines, and exercise a degree of influence which they intended to
reserve exclusively to their own agents. The Democratic party, which has
constantly been opposed to the increase of the federal authority,
then accused the Congress of usurpation, and the Chief Magistrate of
ambition. The central Government was intimidated by the opposition;
and it soon acknowledged its error, promising exactly to confine its
influence for the future within the circle which was prescribed to it.

The Constitution confers upon the Union the right of treating with
foreign nations. The Indian tribes, which border upon the frontiers of
the United States, had usually been regarded in this light. As long as
these savages consented to retire before the civilized settlers,
the federal right was not contested: but as soon as an Indian tribe
attempted to fix its dwelling upon a given spot, the adjacent States
claimed possession of the lands and the rights of sovereignty over the
natives. The central Government soon recognized both these claims; and
after it had concluded treaties with the Indians as independent nations,
it gave them up as subjects to the legislative tyranny of the States. *w

[Footnote w: See in the Legislative Documents, already quoted in
speaking of the Indians, the letter of the President of the United
States to the Cherokees, his correspondence on this subject with his
agents, and his messages to Congress.]

Some of the States which had been founded upon the coast of the
Atlantic, extended indefinitely to the West, into wild regions where no
European had ever penetrated. The States whose confines were irrevocably
fixed, looked with a jealous eye upon the unbounded regions which the
future would enable their neighbors to explore. The latter then agreed,
with a view to conciliate the others, and to facilitate the act
of union, to lay down their own boundaries, and to abandon all the
territory which lay beyond those limits to the confederation at large.
*x Thenceforward the Federal Government became the owner of all the
uncultivated lands which lie beyond the borders of the thirteen States
first confederated. It was invested with the right of parcelling and
selling them, and the sums derived from this source were exclusively
reserved to the public treasure of the Union, in order to furnish
supplies for pur