Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/156

Rh ment now will exist then; and those which will exist then exist now.”

“What was the object of the Convention,” he asked, “in framing the Constitution? The leading object was . Union, then, peace external and internal, and commerce, but more particularly union and peace, the great objects of the framers of the Constitution, should be kept steadily in view in the interpretation of any clause of it; and where it is susceptible of various interpretations, that construction should be preferred which tends to promote the objects of the framers of the Constitution, to the consolidation of the Union.” This he emphasized with still greater force. “I am a friend, a true friend, to state rights, but not in all cases as they are asserted. We should equally avoid that subtile process of argument which dissipates into air the powers of the government, and that spirit of encroachment which would snatch from the states powers not delegated to the general government. We shall then escape both the dangers I have noticed, — that of relapsing into the alarming weakness of the Confederation, which was described as a mere rope of sand; and also that other, perhaps not the greatest, danger, consolidation. No man deprecates more than I do the idea of consolidation; yet between separation and consolidation, painful as would be the alternative, I should greatly prefer the latter.”

Here was the well-spring from which Henry