This is the more necessary where the frame of the government is so
compounded that the laws of the whole are in danger of being contravened
by the laws of the parts. In this case, if the particular tribunals are
invested with a right of ultimate jurisdiction, besides the
contradictions to be expected from difference of opinion, there will be
much to fear from the bias of local views and prejudices, and from the
interference of local regulations. As often as such an interference was
to happen, there would be reason to apprehend that the provisions of the
particular laws might be preferred to those of the general laws; for
nothing is more natural to men in office than to look with peculiar
deference towards that authority to which they owe their official
existence.
The treaties of the United States, under the present Constitution, are
liable to the infractions of thirteen different legislatures, and as
many different courts of final jurisdiction, acting under the authority
of those legislatures. The faith, the reputation, the peace of the whole
Union, are thus continually at the mercy of the prejudices, the
passions, and the interests of every member of which it is composed.
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