ment of unlimited powers. It is only when the
hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly,
prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the
federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much,
under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them
also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us
all. In the mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate
from them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government
of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our
federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable
of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and
securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and
peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice
shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair
but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform
its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and
restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are
the objects of this Declaration and Protest.

Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of
its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals
should be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more
likely to be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the
independent action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from
respect to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its
co-States, will consent, in concurrence with them, to make this
addition, provided it be done regularly by an amendment of the compact,
in the way established by that instrument, and provided also, it be
sufficiently guarded against abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices,
not only of possible, but of probable occurrence.

And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented
to by the compact called 'The Constitution of the United States of
America,' (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its
language, t