of the Confederacy. Frequent war and constant apprehension, which
require a state of as constant preparation, will infallibly produce
them. The weaker States or confederacies would first have recourse
to them, to put themselves upon an equality with their more potent
neighbors. They would endeavor to supply the inferiority of
population and resources by a more regular and effective system of
defense, by disciplined troops, and by fortifications. They would,
at the same time, be necessitated to strengthen the executive arm of
government, in doing which their constitutions would acquire a
progressive direction toward monarchy. It is of the nature of war
to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative
authority.
The expedients which have been mentioned would soon give the
States or confederacies that made use of them a superiority over
their neighbors. Small states, or states of less natural strength,
under vigorous governments, and with the assistance of disciplined
armies, have often triumphed over large states, or states of greater
natural strength, which have been destitute of these advantages.
Neither the pride nor the safety of the more important States or
confederacies would permit them long to submit to this mortifying
and adventitious superiority. They would quickly resort to means
similar to those by which it had been effected, to reinstate
themselves in their lost pre-eminence. Thus, we should, in a little
time, see established in every part of this country the same engines
of despotism which have been the scourge of the Old World. This, at
least, would be the natural course of things; and our reasonings
will be the more likely to be just, in proportion as they are
accommodated to this standard.
These are not vague inferences drawn from supposed or
speculative defects in a Constitution, the whole power of which is