e. In the latter, the
local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of
the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the
general authority, than the general authority is subject to them, within
its own sphere. In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot
be deemed a NATIONAL one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain
enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary
and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects. It is true that in
controversies relating to the boundary between the two jurisdictions,
the tribunal which is ultimately to decide, is to be established under
the general government. But this does not change the principle of the
case. The decision is to be impartially made, according to the rules of
the Constitution; and all the usual and most effectual precautions
are taken to secure this impartiality. Some such tribunal is clearly
essential to prevent an appeal to the sword and a dissolution of the
compact; and that it ought to be established under the general rather
than under the local governments, or, to speak more properly, that it
could be safely established under the first alone, is a position not
likely to be combated.

If we try the Constitution by its last relation to the authority by
which amendments are to be made, we find it neither wholly NATIONAL
nor wholly FEDERAL. Were it wholly national, the supreme and ultimate
authority would reside in the MAJORITY of the people of the Union; and
this authority would be competent at all times, like that of a
majority of every national society, to alter or abolish its established
government. Were it wholly federal, on the other hand, the concurrence
of each State in the Union would be essential to every alteration that
would be binding on all. The mode provided by the plan of the convention
is not founded on either of these principles. In requiring more than
a majority, and principles. In requiring more than a majority, and
particularly in computing the proportion by STATES, not by CITIZENS, it
departs from the NATIONAL and advances towards the FEDERAL character;
in rendering the concurrence of less than the whole number of States
sufficient, it loses again the FEDERAL and partakes of the NATIONAL
character.

The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither a
national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both. In its
foundation it is federal, not