HISTORY OF OPINION CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THE CONSTI
THE history of opinion and belief concerning the nature of the Federal Union under the Constitution is a study necessary to any one who would understand the controversy that culminated in 1860-1 in a civil war of the most serious character. To pursue this study intelligently, one must begin with the period of the formation and adoption of the Constitution, and must trace the development of the controversies about its character through many and various phases.
We have seen that as soon as the framework of the Constitution became known, and before it was ratified and put into operation, much jealousy was felt at the idea of creating a central government with direct and sovereign powers. I have described the mode in which this jealousy was so far successfully quieted as to secure the adoption of the Constitution by the requisite number of states; and I have attributed this result partly to the publication of that remarkable series of papers since known as The Federalist, and partly to the judicious mode in which amendments were first proposed. But when the framers and friends of the Constitution had succeeded in getting it established, there