e of the question,
and the interest taken in it by the opposing parties, so eminently
required. This deliberate investigation of the subject terminated in a
conviction, that the constitution of the United States authorized the
measure;[52] and the sanction of the executive was given to the act.

[Footnote 52: See note, No. V. at the end of the volume.]

[Sidenote: Progress of parties.]

The judgment is so much influenced by the wishes, the affections, and
the general theories of those by whom any political proposition is
decided, that a contrariety of opinion on this great constitutional
question ought to excite no surprise. It must be recollected that the
conflict between the powers of the general and state governments was
coeval with those governments. Even during the war, the preponderance
of the states was obvious; and, in a very few years after peace, the
struggle ended in the utter abasement of the general government. Many
causes concurred to produce a constitution which was deemed more
competent to the preservation of the union, but its adoption was
opposed by great numbers; and in some of the large states especially,
its enemies soon felt and manifested their superiority. The old line
of division was still as strongly marked as ever. Many retained the
opinion that liberty could be endangered only by encroachments upon
the states; and that it was the great duty of patriotism to restrain
the powers of the general government within the narrowest possible
limits.

In the other party, which was also respectable for its numbers, many
were found who had watched the progress of American affairs, and who
sincerely believed that the real danger which threatened the republic
was to be looked for in the undue ascendency of the states. To them it
appeared, that the substantial powers, and the extensive means of
influence, which were retained by the local sovereignties, furnished
them with weapons for aggression which were not easily to be resisted,
and that it behoved all those who were anxious for the happiness of
their country, to guard the equilibrium established in the
constitution, by preserving unimpaired, all the legitimate powers of
the union. These were more confirmed in their sentiments, by observing
the temper already discovered in the legislatures of several states,
respecting the proceedings of congress.

To this great and radical division of opinion, which would necessarily
affect every question on t