ave been
appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole
and express purpose OF REVISING THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, and
reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such ALTERATIONS AND
PROVISIONS THEREIN, as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed
by the States, render the federal Constitution ADEQUATE TO THE
EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION."

From these two acts, it appears, 1st, that the object of the convention
was to establish, in these States, A FIRM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; 2d, that
this government was to be such as would be ADEQUATE TO THE EXIGENCIES
OF GOVERNMENT and THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION; 3d, that these purposes
were to be effected by ALTERATIONS AND PROVISIONS IN THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION, as it is expressed in the act of Congress, or by SUCH
FURTHER PROVISIONS AS SHOULD APPEAR NECESSARY, as it stands in the
recommendatory act from Annapolis; 4th, that the alterations and
provisions were to be reported to Congress, and to the States, in order
to be agreed to by the former and confirmed by the latter.

From a comparison and fair construction of these several modes of
expression, is to be deduced the authority under which the convention
acted. They were to frame a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, adequate to the
EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT, and OF THE UNION; and to reduce the articles
of Confederation into such form as to accomplish these purposes.

There are two rules of construction, dictated by plain reason, as
well as founded on legal axioms. The one is, that every part of the
expression ought, if possible, to be allowed some meaning, and be made
to conspire to some common end. The other is, that where the several
parts cannot be made to coincide, the less important should give way
to the more important part; the means should be sacrificed to the end,
rather than the end to the means.

Suppose, then, that the expressions defining the authority of the
convention were irreconcilably at variance with each other; that a
NATIONAL and ADEQUATE GOVERNMENT could not possibly, in the judgment
of the convention, be affected by ALTERATIONS and PROVISIONS in the
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION; which part of the definition ought to have
been embraced, and which rejected? Which was the more important, which
the less important part? Which the end; which the means? Let the most
scrupulous expositors of delegated powers; let the most inveterate
objectors against t