and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of
constructive statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these
statesmen originated the principle, but they gave form and expression to
the principle which was latent in the circumstances under which the
group of American colonies had grown up, and which suggested itself so
forcibly that the clear vision of these thinkers did not fail to seize
upon it as the fundamental principle upon which alone could the affairs
of a great people, spreading over a vast continent, be kept in a
condition approaching to something like permanent peace. Stated broadly,
so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal proposition, the
principle of federalism is just this:--that the people of a state shall
have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, which
directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage with
more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body
could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern
between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached,
not by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic
legislation of a central government which represents both states and
people, and whose decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by
the combined physical power of all the states. This principle, in
various practical applications, is so familiar to Americans to-day that
we seldom pause to admire it, any more than we stop to admire the air
which we breathe or the sun which gives us light and life. Yet I believe
that if no other political result than this could to-day be pointed out
as coming from the colonization of America by Englishmen, we should
still be justified in regarding that event as one of the most important
in the history of mankind. For obviously the principle of federalism, as
thus broadly stated, contains within itself the seeds of permanent peace
between nations; and to this glorious end I believe it will come in the
fulness of time.