OpnCoronet
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
"I rose yesterday to ask a question which arose in my own mind. When I asked that question, I thought the meaning of my interrogation was obvious. The fate of this question and of America may depend on this. Have they said, We, the states? Have they made a proposal of a compact between states? If they had, this would be a confederation. It is otherwise most clearly a consoloidated government."
The question, turns, sir, on that poor little thing--the expression, We, the people, instead of the states, of America. I need not take much pains to show the principle of this system are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. Is this a monarchy, like England--a compact between prince and people, with checks on the forfmer to secure the liberty of the latter? Is this a confederacy, like Holland--an association of a number of independent states, each of which retains its individual sovereignty? It is not a democracy wherein the people retain all their rights securely.
Had these principles been adhered to, we should not have been bought to this alarming transition, from a confederracy to a consolidated government.
Patrick Henry, Against the Federal Constitution; Junw
e 5, 1788
Bringing the