Even to ridicule the President was pronounced by the corrupt partisan judges a violation of the law.Men were beaten almost to death for neglecting to pull off their hats when the President was passing,and every man who did not instantly prostrate himself before the ensigns of Federal royalty,was denounced as the enemy of his country.The following letter,addressed to President John Adams by the merchants of Boston,shows to what lengths that party had dragged the public mind in the direction of monarchy:"We,the subscribers,inhabitants and citizens of Boston,in the State of Massachusetts,deeply impressed with the alarming situation of our country,and convinced of the necessity of uniting with firmness at this interesting crisis,beg leave to express to you,the Chief Magistrate and supreme ruler over the United States,our fullest approbation of all the measures,external and internal,you have pleased to adopt,under direction of divine authority.We beg leave also to express the high and elevated opinion we entertain of your talents,your virtue,your wisdom and your prudence;and our fixed resolution to support,at the risk of our lives and fortunes,such measures as you may determine upon to be necessary for promoting and securing the honor and happiness of America."Any one can see that men who could address the President after this fashion,had a great deal less respect for the restraints and limitations of a written Constitution,than for the will and force of individual power.That was the drift of a certain portion of public opinion in America at that time.
But the tyrannical excesses of that party soon brought it into such odium,that it was driven from power by the election of Mr.Jefferson to the Presidency.
Though defeated,its partisans never ceased to labor to drag the Constitution away from its Democratic foundations,by giving the Constitution a construction utterly antagonistic to the intentions of the Convention which framed and of the States which adopted it.The great vice of the Federalists consisted in desiring to clothe the Federal Government with almost monarchical powers;
whereas the States had carefully and resolutely reserved the great mass of political power to themselves.The powers which they delegated to the Federal Government were few,and were general in their character.Those which they reserved embraced their original and inalienable sovereignty,which no State imagined it was surrendering when it,adopted the Constitution.
Mr.Madison dwelt with great force upon the fact that "a delegated is not a surrendered power."The States surrendered no powers to the Federal Government.
They only delegated them.The powers of the States are original.Those of the Federal Government are only derived and secondary;and they were delegated,not for the purpose of aggrandizing the Federal Government,but for the sole purpose of protecting the rights and sovereignty of "the several States."The Federal Government was formed by the States for their own benefit.The Federal Government is simply an agency,commissioned by the "several States"for their own convenience and safety.In the Convention of Virginia,Patrick Henry said:"Liberty,sir,is the primary object.
Liberty,the greatest of all earthly blessings ?give us that precious jewel,and you may take away everything else."And,with an eloquence more powerful than that which shook the throne of Macedon,he demonstrated that the battles of the Revolution were fought,not to make "a great and mighty empire,"but "for liberty."It was for liberty ?for the liberty of the people of the "several States"that the Federal Government was established.
