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[492] The truth is, our statesmen and jurists are inexcusable for construing the Constitution instead of treating it factually as they would the person, lineaments, and traits of a king, or as they would the foundations, walls, and uses of a fort. The States are ‘beautiful structures on the broad beach’—the Union a surrounding ‘dyke to fence out the flood.’ [Fisher Ames.] The Constitution and all its parts, as well as its history, are facts. Construction indeed! Gouverneur Morris deals with some of the constructors or interpreters as follows: ‘The Legislature will always make the power it wishes to exercise * * swearing the true intent and meaning [of the Constitution] to be that which suits their purpose.’ [Iii, Life of M.]

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Gouverneur Morris (1)
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