Would they not act with more
consistency, in urging the establishment of the latter, as no less
necessary to guard the Union against the future powers and resources of
a body constructed like the existing Congress, than to save it from the
dangers threatened by the present impotency of that Assembly?
I mean not, by any thing here said, to throw censure on the measures
which have been pursued by Congress. I am sensible they could not have
done otherwise. The public interest, the necessity of the case, imposed
upon them the task of overleaping their constitutional limits. But is
not the fact an alarming proof of the danger resulting from a government
which does not possess regular powers commensurate to its objects? A
dissolution or usurpation is the dreadful dilemma to which it is
continually exposed.
PUBLIUS
____
FEDERALIST No. 39
The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles
For the Independent Journal.
Wednesday, January 16, 1788
MADISON
To the People of the State of New York:
THE last paper having concluded the observations which were meant to
introduce a candid survey of the plan of government reported by the
convention, we now proceed to the execution of that part of our
undertaking.
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