He next objects to the exclusive legislation over the district where the seat of the government may be fixed.  Would he submit that the representatives of this State should carry on their deliberations under the control of any one member of the Union?  If any State had the power of legislation over the place where Congress should fix the general government, it would impair the dignity and hazard the safety of Congress.  If the safety of the Union were under the control of any particular State, would not foreign corruption probably prevail in such a State, to induce it to exert its controlling influence over the members of the general government?  Gentlemen cannot have forgotten the disgraceful insult which Congress received some years ago.  And, sir, when we also reflect, that the previous cession of particular States is necessary, before Congress can legislate exclusively anywhere, we must, instead of being alarmed at this part, heartily approve of it.

But the honorable member sees great danger in the provision concerning the militia.  Now, sir, this I conceive to be an additional security to our liberties, without diminishing the power of the States in any considerable degree; it appears to me so highly expedient, that I should imagine it would have found advocates even in the warmest friends of the present system.  The authority of training the militia and appointing the officers is reserved to the States.  But Congress ought to have the power of establishing a uniform system of discipline throughout the States; and to provide for the execution of the laws, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.  These are the only cases wherein they can interfere with the militia; and the obvious necessity of their having power over them in these cases must flash conviction on any reflecting mind.  Without uniformity of discipline, military bodies would be incapable of action; without a general controlling power to call forth the strength of the Union, for the purpose of repelling invasions, the country might be overrun and conquered by foreign enemies.  Without such a power to suppress insurrections, our liberties might be destroyed by intestine faction, and domestic tyranny be established.

Give me leave to say something of the nature of the government, and to show that it is perfectly safe and just to vest it with the power of taxation.  There are a number of opinions; but the principal question is, whether it be a federal or a consolidated government.  In order to judge properly of the question before us, we must consider it minutely, in its principal parts.  I myself conceive that it is of a mixed nature; it is, in a manner, unprecedented.  We cannot find one express prototype in the experience of the world:  it stands by itself.  In some respects, it is a government of a federal nature; in others, it is of a consolidated nature.  Even if we attend to the manner in which the Constitution is investigated, ratified, and made the act of the