Strong as is
the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual. Men
blinded by their passions have been known to adopt measures for
their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of
policy. The alternative, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad
passion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be
the corner stone upon which our American political architects have
reared the fabric of our Government. The cement which was to bind
it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment
between all its members. To insure the continuance of this
feeling, produced at first by a community of dangers, of
sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made
accessible to all. No participation in any good possessed by any
member of our extensive Confederacy, except in domestic
government, was withheld from the citizen of any other member. By
a process attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but
that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of
any other, and successively of the whole. The lines, too,
separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State
from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave
no room for misunderstanding. The citizens of each State unite in
their persons all the privileges which that character confers and
all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in
no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citizen
of two separate States, and he is therefore positively precluded
from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but
that of which he is for the time being a citizen.
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