between them or between the whole Government and those of the States or
either of them. We could then compare our actual condition after fifty
years' trial of our system with what it was in the commencement of its
operations and ascertain whether the predictions of the patriots who
opposed its adoption or the confident hopes of its advocates have been
best realized. The great dread of the former seems to have been that
the reserved powers of the States would be absorbed by those of the
Federal Government and a consolidated power established, leaving to the
States the shadow only of that independent action for which they had so
zealously contended and on the preservation of which they relied as the
last hope of liberty. Without denying that the result to which they
looked with so much apprehension is in the way of being realized, it is
obvious that they did not clearly see the mode of its accomplishment.
The General Government has seized upon none of the reserved rights of
the States. 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