Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/375

 party contests growing out of them. To these it may be added, that Gen. Hamilton had laid the foundation of his policy so deep, and with so much skill, that it was difficult, if not impossible, to reverse it; at least, until time and experience should prove it to be destructive to the federal character of the government — inconsistent with the harmony and union of the States, and fatal to the liberty of the people. It is, indeed, even possible that, not even he — much less his cabinet and party generally — had a just and full conception of the danger, and the utter impracticability of some of the leading measures of his policy.

Not longer after the expiration of his term, his successor in the presidency, Mr. Madison, was forced into a war with Great Britain, after making every effort to avoid it. This, of course, absorbed the attention of the government and the country for the time, and arrested all efforts to carry out the doctrines and policy which brought the party into power. It did more; for the war, however just and necessary, gave a strong impulse adverse to the federal, and favorable to the national line of policy. This is, indeed, one of the unavoidable consequences of war; and can be counteracted, only by bringing into full action the negatives necessary to the protection of the reserved powers. These would, of themselves, have the effect of preventing wars, so long as they could be honorably and safely avoided — and, when necessary, of arresting, to a great extent, the tendency of the government to transcend the limits of the constitution, during its prosecution;