The sources of Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated

1. The Constitution of the United States the framers of the constitution 18 authority 18 citations · 59 passages

   to the publick. · preface. 2 passages anchored here · section 3.: sovereignty. 3 passages anchored here · section 4.: the union. 3 passages anchored here · ch. 7 · section 6.: property. 3 passages anchored here · ch. 10 7 passages anchored here · ch. 11 11 passages anchored here

   and 5 more chapters

   ch. 12 6 passages anchored here · ch. 13 3 passages anchored here · ch. 14 12 passages anchored here · ch. 15 4 passages anchored here · ch. 16 3 passages anchored here

   The federal constitution is repeatedly invoked throughout the passage as the ultimate legal authority against which federal acts and judicial decisions are measured.

   In fact, this declaratory end is a complete key to the intention of the constitution, and locks out congress, in conjunction with the reservation to the states, from all constructive powers over persons and things, if a local and personal nature, especially the power of taxing either to foster fungi, or to grant bounties or exclusive privileges.

2. The Federalist Alexander Hamilton 11 authority · 1 endorsed 12 citations · 25 passages

   section 4.: the union. · ch. 7 5 passages anchored here · ch. 9 5 passages anchored here · ch. 10 4 passages anchored here · ch. 11 6 passages anchored here · ch. 13 · ch. 14 · ch. 18 2 passages anchored here

   The passage explicitly cites 'Fed.' with page numbers and the author initial 'H.' four times, quoting Hamilton's Federalist essays as authoritative support for the states' retained taxing power.

   “There is not a syllable in the plan which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect, than may be claimed by the courts of every state:

3. Declaration of Independence Continental Congress 3 authority · 1 neutral 4 citations · 6 passages

   section 3.: sovereignty. 2 passages anchored here · ch. 7 2 passages anchored here · ch. 11 · ch. 15

   Directly quoted as the source of the people's right to alter, abolish and institute governments, treated as the foundational authority for the American divisions of power.

   They were also seen by no small number during our revolutionary war, and even disfigured the declaration of independence into an ugly monster.

4. John Marshall 3 refuted 3 citations · 24 passages

   ch. 7 · ch. 9 20 passages anchored here · ch. 11 3 passages anchored here

   Cited as the sole respectable authority questioning the colonial principles, but its implications are reinterpreted and its force diminished by the author's argument.

   If therefore it be true, as the English anthorities assert, that the opinion of the court admits “that the creation of corporations appertains to sovereignty,” and if sovereignty among us appertains to the people, it follows that the creation of corporations does not appertain to either of our governments, or to either of their departments.

5. Alien and Sedition Law Federalist Congress 3 refuted 3 citations · 5 passages

   to the publick. · ch. 14 3 passages anchored here · ch. 16

   The Alien and Sedition Law is cited as a historical statute that was repudiated by the people, treated as a precedent of successful resistance to federal overreach.

   and probably at this time that law is more generally reprobated, both by congress and their constituents, than the alien and sedition laws ever were at any period;

6. John Taylor of Caroline 2 neutral 2 citations · 1 passage

   to the publick.

   Arator is cited directly as an earlier work of the same author sharing its spirit with the present treatise.

   We here see the spirit which breathes in the pages of “Arator,” and of the “Political Enquiry.

7. Samuel Johnson 1 authority · 1 refuted 2 citations

   section 4.: the union. · ch. 7

   Johnson's dictionary definition is directly invoked to support the reading of 'the people' as a collective political community.

   “ “The people,” says Johnson, are “those who compose a community.

8. Articles of Confederation Continental Congress 1 authority · 1 neutral 2 citations

   ch. 7 · ch. 14

   Quoted directly as the 'first union' and relied upon as evidence that state sovereignty was retained from the outset of the American union.

   The first “retains the sovereignty and rights to the states not delegated to the United States.

9. Discourses Concerning Government Algernon Sidney 2 endorsed 2 citations

   section 2.: construction. · ch. 7

   Sidney's asserted doctrines about the popular origin of civil authority and the deposability of tyrants are reported as authoritative republican teaching, endorsed by the passage's sympathetic account of his condemnation.

   The day on which the former was beheaded, the wise and learned university of Oxford, convinced by its doctors in the art of construction, declared every principle by which a free constitution can be maintained, to be “impious and heretical,” especially the doctrine, that “all civil authority is derived from the people.

10. Edinburgh Review 2 authority 2 citations · 3 passages

    ch. 9 · ch. 18 2 passages anchored here

    The narrator relies on this periodical's claim as authority to support his warning about the changeability of English law and constitution.

    The best authority for facts within my reach, is the Edinburgh Review.

11. Magna Carta King John and the English Barons 2 authority 2 citations · 3 passages

    ch. 7 · ch. 16 2 passages anchored here

    Cited by the colonies as English precedent for limiting the means of supreme sovereign power, supporting their argument against unrestricted parliamentary means.

    ” And, says another historian, “the people by this decision were struck with despair, “and concluded very justly, that magna charta and the old English constitution were at an end.

12. George Berkeley 1 neutral 1 citation

    ch. 18

    Berkeley's philosophy is explicitly named as a figurative comparison for the insubstantial, easily-vanishing nature of bank stock.

    whilst the stock of banks is very often a complete illustration of Berkeley’s philosophy.

13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1 refuted 1 citation

    section 6.: property.

    Rousseau is named directly and his influence characterized as an illusion that wrongly alarms men into wishing to curtail constitutional liberty and property.

    Many wise and good men, however, alarmed by the illusions of Rousseau and Godwin, and the atrocities of the French revolution, honestly believe that these principles have teeth and claws, which it is expedient to draw and pare, however constitutional they may be;

14. John Locke 1 authority 1 citation

    ch. 11

    Named directly as 'Mr. Locke' whose maxim, though the specific work is not named ('somewhere said'), is quoted as supporting authority.

    Locke has somewhere said, “that no man has a right to that, which another has a right to take from him.

15. Two Treatises of Government John Locke 1 endorsed 1 citation

    ch. 7

    Locke's discovery that sovereignty and passive obedience were arbitrary and pernicious notions is credited approvingly as the philosophical basis for the principle of self-government.

    Locke and others at length discovered, that sovereignty in governments and passive obedience in nations, far from being natural or necessary principles for civil societies, were arbitrary and pernicious notions, capable of being supplanted by opinions more natural;

16. William Godwin 1 refuted 1 citation

    section 6.: property.

    Godwin is named directly alongside Rousseau and his influence characterized in the same terms as a dangerous philosophical illusion.

    Many wise and good men, however, alarmed by the illusions of Rousseau and Godwin, and the atrocities of the French revolution, honestly believe that these principles have teeth and claws, which it is expedient to draw and pare, however constitutional they may be;

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

to the publick. 2 sources

casting-vote speech against renewal of the first Bank charter · the Supreme Court's decision upholding the Bank of the United States

ch. 3 2 sources

the Gospel (New Testament scriptures) · the maxim 'no bishop no king'

section 2.: construction. 1 source

Judgment and Decree of the University of Oxford (1683)

section 3.: sovereignty. 2 sources

Institutes of the Laws of England · the several State Constitutions

section 4.: the union. 12 sources

Constitution of Delaware · Constitution of Georgia · Constitution of Maryland · Constitution of Massachusetts · Constitution of New Hampshire · Constitution of New York · Constitution of North Carolina · Constitution of Pennsylvania · Constitution of South Carolina · Constitution of Vermont · Constitution of Virginia · Diplomatic correspondence and negotiations with the French Republic

ch. 7 4 sources

Essays of 1774 and 1775 · History of the United States · Patriarcha · Petition of Right

section 6.: property. 1 source

Commentaries on the Laws of England

ch. 9 2 sources

English Dictionaries · Judgment condemning two women as witches

ch. 10 2 sources

English constitutional system of king, lords, and commons · Opinion of the Court (constitutional decision on implied federal powers)

ch. 11 6 sources

Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 · Opinion of the Supreme Court asserting federal supremacy over state taxation · Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States · Ramsay's United States · Treaty of Paris · unspecified writings of Montesquieu

ch. 12 5 sources

A Saying on the Misuse of the Word 'Necessary', Recorded by Wrangham · The Judges' Decision on the Dispensing Power under James the Second · The Supreme Court's Decision on Federal Supremacy and the Bank · resolution rejecting Lord North's proposal to raise colonial revenue · the court's opinion upholding the Bank of the United States

ch. 13 4 sources

Congressional Stamp Act on State Bank Notes · Magna Charta · Opinion of the Court in the Bank Case (McCulloch v. Maryland) · South Sea Company Charter

ch. 14 7 sources

Act changing the sale of public lands from credit to cash · Don Quixote · History of the Puritans · Messages to Congress of 1801 and 1802 · Nolumus leges Angliae mutare (legal maxim) · The Bank Decision (McCulloch v. Maryland) · The Gospels

ch. 15 3 sources

doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty over property · doctrine of spherical sovereignty over property · unspecified public statement on the definition of liberty

ch. 16 4 sources

McCulloch v. Maryland (the Bank Case) · The Case of Ship-Money (Rex v. Hampden) · observation on the Ship-Money decision (History of the Rebellion) · the Law of Nations (writings of international-law theorists)

ch. 17 13 sources

Constitution of the United States (Article I, Section 8) · Constitution of the United States (Article IV, Section 4 - Guarantee Clause) · Constitution of the United States (Territory Clause) · Decision of Lord Mansfield · Laws of Rome · Ramsay's History of the United States · the 8th section of the federal Constitution (enumerated congressional powers) · the Genesis narrative of the Garden of Eden · the compact clause of the federal Constitution (prohibiting states from entering agreements or compacts with one another) · the judicial decision in the Grenada revenue-condition case · the new-states admission clause of the federal Constitution · the popular maxim 'united we stand, divided we fall' · the writings and speeches of the Amis des Noirs (Friends of the Blacks) society

ch. 18 6 sources

Attributed exclamation, "virtue, thou art but a name" · Bank Charters · Corn Laws · English Poor Laws · History of the English Embassy to China · Protecting-Duty Laws