Note 92 — Tuesday June 19th in Committee of Whole on the Propositions of Mr Patterson,—[90]

King, in his notes, gives a résumé of his speech. It illustrates the accuracy of Madison's reporting:

"Answer (R. King) The States under the confed. are not sovereign States they can do no act but such as are of a subordinate nature or such as terminate in themselves—and even these are restrained—coinage, P. office &c they are wholly incompetent to the exercise of any of the gt. & distinguishing acts of sovereignty—They can neither make nor receive (embassies) to or from any other sovereign—they have not the powers of injuring another or of defending themselves from an Injury offered from one another—they are deaf, dumb and impotent—these Faculties are yielded up and the U. S. in C. Assd. hold and possess them, and they alone can exercise them—they are so far out of the controul of the separate States yt. if every State in the Union was to instruct yr. Deleg., and those Delegates within ye powers of the Arts. of Union shd. do an act in violation of their Instructions it wd. nevertheless be valid. If they declared a war, any giving aid or comfort to the enemy wd. be Treason; if peace, any capture on the high seas wd. be piracy. This remark proves yt. the States are now subordinate corporations or societies and not sovereigns—these imperfect States are the confederates and they are the electors of the magistrates who exercise the national sovereignty. The Articles of Confedr. and perpetual Union, are partly federal & partly of the nature of a constitution or form of Govt. arising from and applying to the Citizens of the U. S. & not from the individual States.

"The only criterion of determining what is federal & what is national is this, those acts which are for the government of the States only are purely federal, those which are for the government of the Citizens of the individual States are national and not federal.

"If then the articles of Confedr. & perpetual union have this twofold capacity, and if they provide for an alteration in a certain mode, why may not they be so altered as that the federal article may be changed to a national one, and the national to a federal? I see no argument that can be objected to the authority. The 5th article regulates the influence of the several States and makes them equal—does not the confed. authorize this alteration, that instead of this Equality, one state may have double the Influence of another—I conceive it does—and so of every Article except that wh. destroys the Idea of a confedy. I think it may be proved that every article may be totally altered provided you have one guarantying to each State the right of regulating its private & internal affairs in the manner of a subordinate corporation.

"But admitting that the Arts, of Confed. & perpet. Union, or the powers of the Legis. did not extend to the proposed Reform; yet the public Deputations & the public Danger require it—the system proposed to be adopted is no scheme of a day, calculated to postpone the hour of Danger, & thus leave it to fall with double ruin on our successors—It is no crude and undigested plan; the child of narrow and unextensive views, brought forward under the Auspices of Cowardice & Irresolution—It is a measure of Decision, it is the foundation of Freedom & of national Glory. It will draw on itself and be able to support the severest scrutiny & Examination. It is no idle experiment, no romantic speculation—the measure forces itself upon wise men, and if they have not firmness to look it in the face and protect it—Farewell to the Freedom of our Government—our military glory will be tarnished and our boasts of Freedom will be the scorn of the Enemies of Liberty."—Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, i., 602, n.