Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/354

 system been preserved, and the practice of the government made to conform to its federal character.

It remains to be explained how, at its very outset, the government received a direction so false and dangerous. For this purpose it will be necessary to recur to the history of the formation and adoption of the constitution.

The convention which framed it, was divided, as has been stated, into two parties — one in favor of a national, and the other of a federal government. The former, consisting, for the most part, of the younger and more talented members of the body — but of the less experienced — prevailed in the early stages of its proceedings. A negative on the action of the governments of the several States, in some form or other, without a corresponding one, on their part, on the acts of the government about to be formed, was indispensable to the consummation of their plan. They, accordingly, as has been shown, attempted, at every stage of the proceedings of the convention, and in all possible forms, to insert some provision in the constitution, which would, in effect, vest it with a negative — but failed in all. The party in favor of a federal form, subsequently gained the ascendency — the national party acquiesced, but without surrendering their preference for their own favorite plan — or yielding, entirely, their confidence in the plan adopted — or the necessity of a negative on the action of the separate governments of the States. They regarded the plan as but an experiment; and determined, as honest men and good patriots, to give