words, "not seconded." Mr.
Morris was a man of distinguished ability, great personal influence, and
undoubted patriotism, but, out of all that assemblage--comprising, as it
did, such admitted friends of centralism as Hamilton, King, Wilson,
Randolph, Pinckney, and others--there was not one to sustain him in the
proposition to incorporate into the Constitution that theory which now
predominates, the theory on which was waged the late bloody war, which
was called a "war for the Union." It failed for want of a second, and
does not even appear in the official journal of the Convention. The very
fact that such a suggestion was made would be unknown to us but for the
record kept by Mr. Madison.

The extracts which have been given, in treating of special branches of
the subject, from the writings and speeches of the framers of the
Constitution and other statesmen of that period, afford ample proof of
their entire and almost unanimous accord with the principles which have
been established on the authority of the Constitution itself, the acts
of ratification by the several States, and other attestations of the
highest authority and validity. I am well aware that isolated
expressions may be found in the reports of debates on the General and
State Conventions and other public bodies, indicating the existence of
individual opinions seemingly inconsistent with these principles; that
loose and confused ideas were sometimes expressed with regard to
sovereignty, the relations between governments and people, and kindred
subjects; and that, while the plan of the Constitution was under
discussion, and before it was definitely reduced to its present shape,
there were earnest advocates in the Convention of a more consolidated
system, with a stronger central government. But these expressions of
individual opinion only prove the existence of a small minority of
dissentients from the principles generally entertained, and which
finally prevailed in the formation of the Constitution. None of these
ever avowed such extravagances of doctrine as are promulgated in this
generation. No statesman of that day would have ventured to risk his
reputation by construing an obligation to support the Constitution as an
obligation to adhere to the Federal Government--a construction which
would have insured the sweeping away of any plan of union embodying it,
by a tempest of popular indignation from every quarter of the country.
None of them suggested such an i