tive occurrence which so
much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the
Constitution. The Legislature, in casting behind metaphysical subtleties
and risking themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay
for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing for them
unauthorized what we know they would have done for themselves had they
been in a position to do it." "Doing for them unauthorized what we know
they would have done for themselves" was the policy of the Federalists,
and the very ground upon which Mr. Jefferson had denounced their policy
and defeated them. The purchase was, in fact, quite within those implied
powers of the Constitution which had always been contended for by the
Federalists, and such leaders as Hamilton and Morris acknowledged
this. Under the strict construction theory, not only could there be no
authority for such an acquisition of territory without the consent of
the several States denominated "part of the original compact," but the
manifest and necessary consequences of this accession, in its effects
upon the Union and upon the balance of power within the Government, were
overwhelming to such an extent as to amount almost to a revolution.

This event may be looked upon as a revolution in the direction of
unification and the impairment of the powers of the several States,
brought about by the very party which had undertaken to oppose such
tendencies. The territory gained stretches over a million square miles
equal in area to the territory previously comprised in the Union,
and twice as large as that actually occupied by the original thirteen
States. Compared with this innovation, the plans of the Federalists for
strengthening the Central Government were inconsiderable. A new nation
was engrafted on the old, and neither the people of the several States
nor their immediate representatives were questioned; but by a treaty the
President and the Senate changed the whole structure of the territory
and modified the relations of the States. Thenceforth, the Louisiana
purchase stood as a repudiation by their own champions of the strict
construction fallacies. Thenceforth, the welfare of the country stands
above party allegiance. The right to make purchases was thereafter, by
general acquiescence of all political parties, within the powers of the
Federal Government. Indeed, it became manifest that implied as well as
expressed powers accrued to the National Government.