om
correspondences with their representatives, and with other persons who
reside at the place of their deliberations. This does not apply to
Montgomery County only, but to all the counties at any considerable
distance from the seat of government.

It is equally evident that the same sources of information would be open
to the people in relation to the conduct of their representatives in the
general government, and the impediments to a prompt communication which
distance may be supposed to create, will be overbalanced by the effects
of the vigilance of the State governments. The executive and legislative
bodies of each State will be so many sentinels over the persons employed
in every department of the national administration; and as it will be
in their power to adopt and pursue a regular and effectual system of
intelligence, they can never be at a loss to know the behavior of those
who represent their constituents in the national councils, and can
readily communicate the same knowledge to the people. Their disposition
to apprise the community of whatever may prejudice its interests from
another quarter, may be relied upon, if it were only from the rivalship
of power. And we may conclude with the fullest assurance that the
people, through that channel, will be better informed of the conduct of
their national representatives, than they can be by any means they now
possess of that of their State representatives.

It ought also to be remembered that the citizens who inhabit the country
at and near the seat of government will, in all questions that affect
the general liberty and prosperity, have the same interest with those
who are at a distance, and that they will stand ready to sound the alarm
when necessary, and to point out the actors in any pernicious project.
The public papers will be expeditious messengers of intelligence to the
most remote inhabitants of the Union.

Among the many curious objections which have appeared against the
proposed Constitution, the most extraordinary and the least colorable is
derived from the want of some provision respecting the debts due to the
United States. This has been represented as a tacit relinquishment of
those debts, and as a wicked contrivance to screen public defaulters.
The newspapers have teemed with the most inflammatory railings on this
head; yet there is nothing clearer than that the suggestion is entirely
void of foundation, the offspring of extreme ignorance or extreme