And it possesses as a check these distinguishing advantages over every other,that it can never be applied without great deliberation and caution,that it is certain in its effects,and that it is but little liable to abuse.It is true that a State may use its power for improper purposes,or on improper occasions;but the Federal Government is,to say the least of it,equally liable to dangerous errors and violations of trust.Shall we then leave that government free from all restraint,merely because the proper countervailing power is liable to abuse?Upon the same principle we should abandon all the guards and securities which we have so carefully provided in the Federal Constitution itself.The truth is,all checks upon government are more or less imperfect;for if it were not so,government itself would be perfect.But this is no reason why we should abandon it to its own will.We have only to apply to this subject our best discretion and caution,to confer no more power than is absolutely necessary,and to guard that power as carefully as we can.Perfection is not to be hoped for;but an approximation to it,sufficiently near to afford a reasonable security to our rights and liberties,is not unattainable.In the formation of the Federal Government we have been careful to limit its powers and define its duties.Our object was to render it such that the people should feel an interest in sustaining it in its purity,for otherwise it could not long subsist.Upon the same principle,we should enlist the same interest in the wise and proper application of those checks,which its unavoidable imperfections render necessary.That interest is found in the States.Having created the Federal Government at their own free will,and for their own uses,why should they seek to destroy it?Having clothed it with a certain portion of their own powers,for their own benefit alone,why should they desire to render those powers inoperative and nugatory?The danger is,not that the States will interpose too often,but that they will rather submit to federal usurpations,than incur the risk of embarrassing that government,by any attempts to check and control it.Flagrant abuses alone,and such as public liberty cannot endure,will ever call into action this salutary and conservative power of the States.
But whether this check be the best or the worst in its nature,it is at least one which our system allows.It is not found within the Constitution,but exists independent of it.As that Constitution was formed by sovereign States,they alone are authorized,whenever the question arises between them and their common government,to determine,in the last resort,what powers they intended to confer on it.28This is an inseparable incident of sovereignty;a right which belongs to the States,simply because they have never surrendered it to any other power.But to render this right available for any good purpose,it is indispensably necessary to maintain the States in their proper position.If their people suffer them to sink into the insignificance of mere municipal corporations,it will be in vain to invoke their protection against the gigantic power of the Federal Government.This is the point to which the vigilance of the people should be chiefly directed.Their highest interest is at home;
their palladium is their own State governments.They ought to know that they can look nowhere else with perfect assurance of safety and protection.
Let them then maintain those governments,not only in their rights,but in their dignity and influence.Make it the interest of their people to serve them;an interest strong enough to resist all the temptations of federal office and patronage.Then alone will their voice be heard with respect at Washington;then alone will their interposition avail to protect their own people against the usurpations of the great central power.It is vain to hope that the federative principle of our government can be preserved,or that anything can prevent it from running into the absolutism of consolidation,if we suffer the rights of the States to be filched away,and their dignity and influence to be lost,through our carelessness or neglect.
