cert, arising from the want of a general authority, and from clashing and dissimilar views in the States, has hitherto frustrated every experiment of the kind, and will continue to do so, as long as the same obstacles to a uniformity of measures continue to exist.
The interfering and unneighborly regulations of some States, contrary to the true spirit of the Union, have, in different instances, given just cause of umbrage and complaint to others; and it is to be feared that examples of this nature, if not restrained by a National control, would be multiplied and extended till they became not less serious sources of animosity and discord, than injurious impediments to the intercourse between the different parts of the Confederacy. "The commerce of the German empire[1] is in continual trammels, from the multiplicity of the duties which the several Princes and States exact upon the merchandises passing through their territories; by means of which the fine streams and navigable rivers with which Germany is so happily watered are rendered almost useless." Though the genius of the people of this country might never permit this description to be strictly applicable to us, yet we may reasonably expect from the gradual conflicts of State regulations, that the citizens of each would at length come to be considered and treated by the others in no better light than that of foreigners and aliens.
The power of raising armies, by the most obvious construction of the Articles of the Confederation, is merely a power of making requisitions upon the States for quotas of men. This practice, in the course of the late war, was found replete with obstructions to a vigorous, and to an economical system of defence. It gave birth to a competition between the States, which created a kind of auction for men. In order to furnish the quo-
- ↑ Encyclopædia, article Empire.—Publius.
