Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/307

 CH. II.] and by cherishing in different minds a jealousy of each, which shall check, as well as enlighten, public opinion.

§ 292. The objections raised against the adoption of the constitution were of very different natures, and, in some instances, of entirely opposite characters. They will be found embodied in various public documents, in the printed opinions of distinguished men, in the debates of the respective state conventions, and in a still more authentic shape in the numerous amendments proposed by these conventions, and accompanying their acts of ratification. It is not easy to reduce them all into general heads; but the most material will here be enumerated, not only to admonish us of the difficulties of the task of framing a general government; but to prepare us the better to understand, and expound the constitution itself.

§ 293. Some of the objections were to the supposed defects and omissions in the instrument; others were to the nature and extent of the powers conferred by it; and others again to the fundamental plan or scheme of its organization.

(1.) It was objected in the first place, that the scheme of government was radically wrong, because it was not a confederation of the states; but a government over individuals. It was said, that the federal form, which regards the Union, as a confederation of sovereign states, ought to have been preserved; instead of which the convention had framed a national government, which regards the Union, as a consolidation of states. This objection was far from being universal; for many admitted, that there ought to be a government over individuals to a certain extent, but by no means