rnment and the several States, and it recognizes no change in it
which shall not in like manner apply to all. If it is once admitted
that the General Government may form compacts with individual States
not common to the others, and which the others might even disapprove,
into what pernicious consequences might it not lead? Such compacts are
utterly repugnant to the principles of the Constitution and of the most
dangerous tendency. The States through which this road passes have given
their sanction only to the route and to the acquisition of the soil
by the United States, a right very different from that of jurisdiction,
which can not be granted without an amendment to the Constitution, and
which need not be granted for the purposes of this system except in the
limited manner heretofore stated. On full consideration, therefore, of
the whole subject I am of opinion that such an amendment ought to be
recommended to the several States for their adoption.

I have now essentially executed that part of the task which I imposed
on myself of examining the right of Congress to adopt and execute a
system of internal improvement, and, I presume, have shown that it does
not exist. It is, I think, equally manifest that such a power vested in
Congress and wisely executed would have the happiest effect on all the
great interests of our Union. It is, however, my opinion that the power
should be confined to great national works only, since if it were
unlimited it would be liable to abuse and might be productive of evil.
For all minor improvements the resources of the States individually
would be fully adequate, and by the States such improvements might be
made with greater advantage than by the Union, as they would understand
better such as their more immediate and local interests required.

In the view above presented I have thought it proper to trace the
origin of our institutions, and particularly of the State and National
Governments, for although they have a common origin in the people, yet,
as the point at issue turned on what were the powers granted to the
one government and what were those which remained to the other, I was
persuaded that an analysis which should mark distinctly the source of
power in both governments, with its progress in each, would afford the
best means for obtaining a sound result. In our political career there
are, obviously, three great epochs. The colonial state forms the first;
the Revolutionary movement