In the history of parties and the names they assume, it often happens
that they finish by the direct contrary principles with which they
profess to begin, and thus it has happened with Federalism.
During the time of the old Congress, and prior to the establishment of
the federal government, the continental belt was too loosely buckled.
The several states were united in name but not in fact, and that nominal
union had neither centre nor circle. The laws of one state frequently
interferred with, and sometimes opposed, those of another. Commerce
between state and state was without protection, and confidence without
a point to rest on. The condition the country was then in, was aptly
described by Pelatiah Webster, when he said, "_thirteen staves and ne'er
a hoop will not make a barrel_."(1)
If, then, by _Federalist_ is to be understood one who was for cementing
the Union by a general government operating equally over all the States,
in all matters that embraced the common interest, and to which the
authority of the States severally was not adequate, for no one State
can make laws to bind another; if, I say, by a _Federalist_ is meant
a person of this description, (and this is the origin of the name,) _I
ought to stand first on the list of Federalists_, for the proposition
for establishing a general government over the Union, came originally
from me in 1783, in a written Memorial to Chancellor Livingston, then
Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Congress, Robert Morris, Minister
of Finance, and his associate, Gouverneur Morris, all of whom are now
living; and we had a dinner and conference at Robert Morris's on the
subject. The occasion was as follows:
Congress had proposed a duty of five per cent, on imported articles, the
money to be applied as a fund towards paying the interest of loans to
be borrowed in Holland. The resolve was sent to the several States to
be enacted into a law. Rhode Island absolutely refused. I was at
the trouble of a journey to Rhode Island to reason with them on the
subject.(2) Some other of the States enacted it with alterations, each
one as it pleased. Virginia adopted it, and afterwards repealed it, and
the affair came to nothing.
1 "Like a stare in a cask well bound with hoops, it [the
individual State] stands firmer, is not so easily shaken,
bent, or broken, as it would be were it set up by itself
alone."--Pelatiah Webster, 1788. See Paul L. Ford's
Pamphlets cm the Constitution, etc., p. 128.--Editor