POLITICAL


 DEAR DEAR ssssRR:I have duly received your letter, in which you refer to the -iiiif Haliii5in doctfine,' advocated as d constitutional right by some of our dis tinguished fellow-citizens; and to the proceedings of the Virginia Legislature n'9S, and '99, as appealed to in behalf of that doctrine; and you express . wish for my ideas on those subjects.

 am aware of the delieacY of the ta:k h sonc respects, and tsc difficulty msgery respect, of doing fail justice to II. But, having, in more than one in- Stance, complied with with t like request from other friendly quarters, do not decline sketch of the views which have been led to take of the doctrine in question. as well as some others connected #ith them; and of the grounds from which it appears, that the proceedings of Vir- glnla have been Hniseoneeived bY those who have appealed to them. In order tounderstand the true character of the Constitution of the United States, the error, not uncommon, must be avoided, ofyiewing 1t through the medium, either Of a consolidated Government or of q confederated Government, whilstit is neither the one nor the other; but q mix. ture of both. And having, in no model, the similitudes and analogies applicable to other systems of Government, it must. more than any other, be its own inter- preter according to its text and the facts of Me case.

 From these it will be seen that the Characteristic pecuiiarities of the Con- stltutlonare, l, the mode of its forma- ton; J, the division of the supreme pow CTS Of Government between the States m their united capacity and the States m their individual capacity.

 l. 1t was formed, not by the Govern ments of tie component States, as the federal Government for which 1t was substituted was formed. Nor was it nfmed by a majority of the people oi me United States, as a single communi- ly,in the manner Of consolidated Go yernment.

 1t was formed by the States, that is, ny the people in each of the States, ac- ling ln their highest sovereign capacity and formed consequently by the same authority which formed the State Con- stitution.

 Being thus derived from the same source as the constitutions of the States. t las, within each State, tie sasale ass- fAes:tys ;sss the the constitution Of the State and is as much a constitution, in the strict sense of the term, within it's pre- sclbed sphere, as the constitutions ol the States are. within their respective spheres; but with this obvious and es. sentlai difference, that being compact among the States in their highest soye capacity, and constitutingthe peo Die thereof one people for certain pur poses, 1t cannot be altered or annullee at the will of the States individually, al sie constitution of State may be at it individual will

 7 And that it divides the supreme powers of Government, between tht government of the United States, ant me Government of the individual States IS stamped on the face of the instru ment, the powers ofwar and oftaxation ol commerce. and of treaties, and othe enumerated powers vested in the Go sernment of the United States, bein! ol as high and sovereign character, q any of the powers reserved to the Stat Governments.

 Nor is the Government of the Iait