Insurrections in a
State will rarely induce a federal interposition, unless the number
concerned in them bear some proportion to the friends of government. It
will be much better that the violence in such cases should be repressed
by the superintending power, than that the majority should be left to
maintain their cause by a bloody and obstinate contest. The existence of
a right to interpose, will generally prevent the necessity of exerting
it.
Is it true that force and right are necessarily on the same side in
republican governments? May not the minor party possess such a
superiority of pecuniary resources, of military talents and experience,
or of secret succors from foreign powers, as will render it superior
also in an appeal to the sword? May not a more compact and advantageous
position turn the scale on the same side, against a superior number so
situated as to be less capable of a prompt and collected exertion of its
strength? Nothing can be more chimerical than to imagine that in a trial
of actual force, victory may be calculated by the rules which prevail in
a census of the inhabitants, or which determine the event of an
election! May it not happen, in fine, that the minority of CITIZENS may
become a majority of PERSONS, by the accession of alien residents, of a
casual concourse of adventurers, or of those whom the constitution of
the State has not admitted to the rights of suffrage? I take no notice
of an unhappy species of population abounding in some of the States,
who, during the calm of regular government, are sunk below the level of
men; but who, in the tempestuous scenes of civil violence, may emerge
into the human character, and give a superiority of strength to any
party with which they may associate themselves.
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