Gazette Of The United States

It is rather a curious circumstance in the politics of the United States, that the powers of the legislature, as derived from the constitution, should be considered in a less expansive view by some who are appointed to administer the government, than they are contemplated by any particular state in the union, or even by those who have racked their inventions to discover in those powers the latent seeds of tyranny. It may however afford consolation to the real friends to the liberties of our country, when they reflect, that there are so many motives, whether laudable or not, in the minds of the administrators of our government, to sound an alarm at the most distant appearance of encroachment on the rights of the states, or of individuals.

If the powers of the general government are so limited that they cannot embrace every object with which the essential interests of the United States are connected-the people, like Moses of old, may have a view of the promised land, but may not enter therein ; or, like Tantalus, may have the waters of life flowing to their lips, but are not suffered to taste thereof.

The Constitution of the United States has been highly complimented at home and abroad—and from the happy alteration in the circumstances of our country, under its auspices, the people have been led to subscribe to the opinions of its friends ; but if the powers, which the government has exercised, exceed the limits prescribed, the people must most sincerely lament the restriction, and consider the constitution so far defective ; for it is much better to derive such advantages from a constitutional source, than to owe them to accident, or an illegal assumption of legislative power.—One thing however is certain, that independent of the Constitution we have no reason to suppose that the United States would at this day, have been either in credit, free, or independent.