.. A Federal standing army,
then, must enforce the requisitions or the Federal treasury will be
left without supplies, and the government without support.... There
is but one cure for such an evil--to enable the national laws to
operate on individuals like the laws of the States. To take the old
Confederation as the basis of a new system, and to trust the sword
and the purse to a single assembly organized upon principles so
defective, giving it the full powers of taxation and the national
forces, would result in what--Despotism! To avoid the very issue
which appears to be held in such abject terror, a totally different
government from anything into which the old Confederation can be
twisted, or fitted out with wings and gables, must be established
with proper powers and proper checks and balances.
His words created a palpable uneasiness. The outburst was the more
effective for following and preceding close passionless and pointed
reasoning, a trenchant review of other republics ancient and modern, and
an elaborate argument in favour of the representation prescribed by the
new Constitution.
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