A very large
proportion of this fund has been already surrendered by individual
States; and it may with reason be expected that the remaining States
will not persist in withholding similar proofs of their equity and
generosity. We may calculate, therefore, that a rich and fertile
country, of an area equal to the inhabited extent of the United States,
will soon become a national stock. Congress have assumed the
administration of this stock. They have begun to render it productive.
Congress have undertaken to do more: they have proceeded to form new
States, to erect temporary governments, to appoint officers for them,
and to prescribe the conditions on which such States shall be admitted
into the Confederacy. All this has been done; and done without the least
color of constitutional authority. Yet no blame has been whispered; no
alarm has been sounded. A GREAT and INDEPENDENT fund of revenue is
passing into the hands of a SINGLE BODY of men, who can RAISE TROOPS to
an INDEFINITE NUMBER, and appropriate money to their support for an
INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME. And yet there are men, who have not only been
silent spectators of this prospect, but who are advocates for the system
which exhibits it; and, at the same time, urge against the new system
the objections which we have heard.
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