The Union is to subsist, but to subsist as a shadow; it
is to be strong in certain cases, and weak in all others; in time of
warfare, it is to be able to concentrate all the forces of the nation
and all the resources of the country in its hands; and in time of
peace its existence is to be scarcely perceptible: as if this alternate
debility and vigor were natural or possible.

I do not foresee anything for the present which may be able to
check this general impulse of public opinion; the causes in which it
originated do not cease to operate with the same effect. The change will
therefore go on, and it may be predicted that, unless some extraordinary
event occurs, the Government of the Union will grow weaker and weaker
every day.

I think, however, that the period is still remote at which the federal
power will be entirely extinguished by its inability to protect itself
and to maintain peace in the country. The Union is sanctioned by
the manners and desires of the people; its results are palpable, its
benefits visible. When it is perceived that the weakness of the Federal
Government compromises the existence of the Union, I do not doubt that a
reaction will take place with a view to increase its strength.

The Government of the United States is, of all the federal governments
which have hitherto been established, the one which is most naturally
destined to act. As long as it is only indirectly assailed by the
interpretation of its laws, and as long as its substance is not
seriously altered, a change of opinion, an internal crisis, or a war,
may restore all the vigor which it requires. The point which I have
been most anxious to put in a clear light is simply this: Many people,
especially in France, imagine that a change in opinion is going on in
the United States, which is favorable to a centralization of power in
the hands of the President and the Congress. I hold that a contrary
tendency may distinctly be observed. So far is the Federal Government
from acquiring strength, and from threatening the sovereignty of the
States, as it grows older, that I maintain it to be growing weaker and
weaker, and that the sovereignty of the Union alone is in danger. Such
are the facts which the present time discloses. The future conceals the
final result of this tendency, and the events which may check, retard,
or accelerate the changes I have described; but I do not affect to be
able to remove the veil which hides them from our sight