tection could be given to either, unless by the strong and uniform operations of a general government. Each state by its own regulations would seek to promote its own interests, to the ruin or injury of those of others. The relative situation of these states; the number of rivers, by which they are intersected, and of bays, that wash their shores; the facility of communication in every direction; the affinity of language and manners; the familiar habits of intercourse; all these circumstances would conspire to render an illicit trade between them matter of little difficulty, and would insure frequent evasions of the commercial regulations of each other.[1] All foreign nations would have a common interest in crippling us; and all the evils of colonial servitude, and commercial monopoly would be inflicted upon us, by the hands of our own kindred and neighbours.[2] But this topic, though capable of being presented in detail from our past experience in such glowing colours, as to startle the most incredulous into a conviction of the ultimate poverty, wretchedness, and distress, which would overwhelm every state, does not require to be more than hinted at. We have already seen in our former examination of the defects of the confederation, that every state was ruined in its revenues, as well as in its commerce, by the want of a more efficient government.[3]
§ 479. Nor should it be imagined, that however injurious to commerce, the evils would be less in respect to domestic manufactures and agriculture. In respect to manufactures, the truth is so obvious, that it requiresPage:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/501
CH. VI.]
THE PREAMBLE.
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