Individuals, or individual
states, may call themselves what they please; but the world, and
especially the world of enemies, is not to be held in awe by the
whistling of a name. Sovereignty must have power to protect all the
parts that compose and constitute it: and as UNITED STATES we are
equal to the importance of the title, but otherwise we are not. Our
union, well and wisely regulated and cemented, is the cheapest way
of being great- the easiest way of being powerful, and the happiest
invention in government which the circumstances of America can admit
of.- Because it collects from each state, that which, by being
inadequate, can be of no use to it, and forms an aggregate that serves
for all.
The states of Holland are an unfortunate instance of the effects
of individual sovereignty. Their disjointed condition exposes them
to numerous intrigues, losses, calamities, and enemies; and the almost
impossibility of bringing their measures to a decision, and that
decision into execution, is to them, and would be to us, a source of
endless misfortune.
It is with confederated states as with individuals in society;
something must be yielded up to make the whole secure. In this view of
things we gain by what we give, and draw an annual interest greater
than the capital.- I ever feel myself hurt when I hear the union, that
great palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently
spoken of. It is the most sacred thing in the constitution of America,
and that which every man should be most proud and tender of.
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