It is not enough, that honest men are appointed Judges.  All know the influence of interest on the mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by that influence.  To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar maxim and creed, that ’it is the office of a good Judge to enlarge his jurisdiction,’ and the absence of responsibility; and how can we expect impartial decision between the General government, of which they are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual state, from which they have nothing to hope or fear?  We have seen, too, that, contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead, and grapple further hold for future advances of power.  They are then, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to undermine the independent rights of the states, and to consolidate all power in the hands of that government, in which they have so important a freehold estate.  But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected.  Were not this great country already divided into states, that division must be made, that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly, and what it can so much better do than a distant authority.  Every state again is divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within its local bounds; each county again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details; and every ward into farms, to be governed each by its individual proprietor.  Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.  It is by this partition of cares, descending in gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs may be best managed, for the good and prosperity of all.  I repeat, that I do not charge the judges with wilful and ill-intentioned error; but honest error must be arrested, where its toleration leads to public ruin.  As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution.  It may, indeed, injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the Republic, which is the first and supreme law.

* In the impeachment of Judge Pickering, of New Hampshire, a habitual and maniac drunkard, no defence was made.  Had there been, the party vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted him.

Among the debilities of the government of the Confederation, no one was more distinguished or more distressing, than the utter impossibility of obtaining, from the States, the monies necessary for the payment of debts, or even for the ordinary expenses of the government.  Some contributed a little, some less, and some nothing; and the last, furnished at length an excuse for the first, to do nothing also.  Mr. Adams, while residing at the Hague, had a general authority to borrow what