in the several States. Let
us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will be
satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our
fellow-citizens been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution,
while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has
been employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and
federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would be
its apportionment among the several States according to their ratio of
representation, and should this measure not be found warranted by the
Constitution that it would be expedient to propose to the States an
amendment authorizing it. I regard an appeal to the source of power in
cases of real doubt, and where its exercise is deemed indispensable to
the general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our obligations.
Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God,
been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence
to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will
be extinguished. That this was intended to be a government of limited
and specific, and not general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is
our duty to preserve for it the character intended by its framers. If
experience points out the necessity for an enlargement of these powers,
let us apply for it to those for whose benefit it is to be exercised,
and not undermine the whole system by a resort to overstrained
constructions. The scheme has worked well. It has exceeded the hopes of
those who devised it, and become an object of admiration to the world.
We are responsible to our country and to the glorious cause of
self-government for the preservation of so great a good. The great mass
of legislation relating to our internal affairs was intended to be left
where the Federal Convention found it--in the State governments. Nothing
is clearer, in my view, than that we are chiefly indebted for the
success of the Constitution under which we are now acting to the
watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is not
the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted
convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly or too
earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all
encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained
by its he