There is no declaration of rights: and the laws of the general
government being paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several
states, the declarations of rights, in the separate states, are no
security. Nor are the people secured even in the enjoyment of the
benefit of the common law, which stands here upon no other foundation
than its having been adopted by the respective acts forming the
constitutions of the several states.
In the House of Representatives there is not the substance, but
the shadow only of representation; which can never produce proper
information in the legislature, or inspire confidence in the
people.—The laws will, therefore, be generally made by men little
concerned in, and unacquainted with their effects and consequences.(66)
The Senate have the power of altering all money-bills, and of
originating appropriations of money, and the salaries of the officers
of their appointment, in conjunction with the President of the United
States—Although they are not the representatives of the people, or
amenable to them. These, with their other great powers, (viz. their
powers in the appointment of ambassadors, and all public officers, in
making treaties, and in trying all impeachments) their influence upon,
and connection with, the supreme executive from these causes, their
duration of office, and their being a constant existing body, almost
continually sitting, joined with their being one complete branch of the
legislature, will destroy any balance in the government, and enable
them to accomplish what usurpations they please, upon the rights and
liberties of the people.
The judiciary of the United States is so constructed and extended, as
to absorb and destroy the judiciaries of the several states; thereby
rendering laws as tedious, intricate, and expensive, and justice as
unattainable by a great part of the community, as in England; and
enabling the rich to oppress and ruin the poor.
The President of the United States has no constitutional council (a
thing unknown in any safe and regular government,) he will therefore
be unsupported by proper information and advice; and will generally
be directed by minions and favorites—or he will become a tool to
the Senate—or a council of state will grow out of the principal
officers of the great departments—the worst and most dangerous of
all ingredients for such a council, in a free country; for they
may be induced to join in any dangerous or oppressive measures, to
shelter themselves, and prevent an inquiry into their own misconduct
in office. Whereas, had a constitutional council been formed (as was
proposed) of six members, viz., two from the eastern, two from the
middle, and two from the southern states, to be appointed by vote of
the states in the House of Representatives, with the same duration
and rotation of office as the Senate, the executive would always have
had safe and proper information and advice; the president of such a
council might have acted as Vice-President of the United States, _pro
tempore_, upon any vacancy or disability of the chief magistrate; and
long continued sessions of the Senate, would in a great measure have
been prevented. From this fatal defect of a constitutional council,
has arisen the improper power of the Senate, in the appointment of the
public officers, and the alarming dependence and connexion between
that branch of the legislature and the supreme executive. Hence, also,
sprung that unnecessary officer, the Vice-President, who, for want of
other employment, is made President of the Senate; thereby dangerously
blending the executive and legislative powers; besides always giving to
some one of the states an unnecessary and unjust pre-eminence over the
others.
The President of the United States has the unrestrained power of
granting pardon for treason; which may be sometimes exercised to screen
from punishment those whom he had secretly instigated to commit the
crime, and thereby prevent a discovery of his own guilt. By declaring
all treaties supreme laws of the land, the executive and the Senate
have, in many cases, an exclusive power of legislation, which might
have been avoided, by proper distinctions with respect to treaties, and
requiring the assent of the House of Representatives, where it could be
done with safety.
By requiring only a majority to make all commercial and navigation
laws, the five southern states (whose produce and circumstances are
totally different from those of the eight northern and eastern states)
will be ruined: for such rigid and premature regulations may be made,
as will enable the merchants of the northern and eastern states not
only to demand an exorbitant freight, but to monopolize the purchase
of the commodities, at their own price, for many years, to the great
injury of the landed interest, and the impoverishment of the people:
and the danger is the greater, as the gain on one side will be in
proportion to the loss on the other. Whereas, requiring two-thirds
of the members present in both houses, would have produced mutual
moderation, promoted the general interest, and removed an insuperable
objection to the adoption of the government.
Under their own construction of the general clause at the end of
the enumerated powers, the Congress may grant monopolies in trade
and commerce, constitute new crimes, inflict unusual and severe
punishments, and extend their power as far as they shall think proper;
so that the state legislatures have no security for the powers now
presumed to remain to them; or the people for their rights. There is no
declaration of any kind for preserving the liberty of the press, the
trial by jury in civil cases, nor against the danger of standing armies
in time of peace.
The state legislatures are restrained from laying export duties
on their own produce—the general legislature is restrained from
prohibiting the further importation of slaves for twenty odd years,
though such importations render the United States weaker, more
vulnerable, and less capable of defence. Both the general legislature,
and the state legislatures are expressly prohibited making _ex post
facto_ laws, though there never was, nor can be, a legislature, but
must and will make such laws, when necessity and the public safety
require them, which will hereafter be a breach of all the constitutions
in the union, and afford precedents for other innovations.
This government will commence in a moderate aristocracy; it is at
present impossible to foresee whether it will, in its operation,
produce a monarchy, or a corrupt oppressive aristocracy; it will most
probably vibrate some years between the two, and then terminate in the
one or the other.