AS far
as any open warfare may have gone, the State authorities have
amply maintained their rights. To a casual observer our system
presents no appearance of discord between the different members
which compose it. Even the addition of many new ones has produced
no jarring. They move in their respective orbits in perfect
harmony with the central head and with each other. But there is
still an undercurrent at work by which, if not seasonably checked,
the worst apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be
realized, and not only will the State authorities be overshadowed
by the great increase of power in the executive department of the
General Government, but the character of that Government, if not
its designation, be essentially and radically changed. This state
of things has been in part effected by causes inherent in the
Constitution and in part by the never-failing tendency of
political power to increase itself. By making the President the
sole distributer of all the patronage of the Government the
framers of the Constitution do not appear to have anticipated at
how short a period it would become a formidable instrument to
control the free operations of the State governments. Of trifling
importance at first, it had early in Mr. Jefferson's
Administration become so powerful as to create great alarm in the
mind of that patriot from the potent influence it might exert in
controlling the freedom of the elective franchise.
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