"
From these two acts, it appears, 1st, that the object of the convention
was to establish, in these States, A FIRM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; 2d, that
this government was to be such as would be ADEQUATE TO THE EXIGENCIES OF
GOVERNMENT and THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION; 3d, that these purposes
were to be effected by ALTERATIONS AND PROVISIONS IN THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION, as it is expressed in the act of Congress, or by SUCH
FURTHER PROVISIONS AS SHOULD APPEAR NECESSARY, as it stands in the
recommendatory act from Annapolis; 4th, that the alterations and
provisions were to be reported to Congress, and to the States, in order
to be agreed to by the former and confirmed by the latter.
From a comparison and fair construction of these several
modes of expression, is to be deduced the authority under which the
convention acted. They were to frame a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, adequate to
the EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT, and OF THE UNION; and to reduce the
articles of Confederation into such form as to accomplish these
purposes.
There are two rules of construction, dictated by plain reason, as well
as founded on legal axioms. The one is, that every part of the
expression ought, if possible, to be allowed some meaning, and be made
to conspire to some common end.
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