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the common good; and the exercise of the Legitimate powers delegated to him is restrained to the object of promoting the happiness of the Nation. leaving all other Communities the right of attaining the same end.

  This being the theory of the Government we are called to administer, let us submit every private and local interest to the test of its consistency with the common good.
 It is necessary, that in the proper discharge of the respective trusts assigned us by the suffrages of our Constituents, that we keep constantly in view the great outlines and first principles of a Representatives Government; and that we observe, not merely the letter, but the spirit and design of the fundamental doctrines prescribed to us in the Constitutional Charters limiting our powers and sphere of action. These principles and doctrines are summarily embodied in the written Charters which we have solemnly pledged ourselves to regard. But owing to the imperfection and mutable character of human language, and the different aspects and circumstances, under which we may be called to give an interpretation, much room is left for difference of construction. Under these difficulties our safest guide will be, to determine the object which was most reasonably intended to be attained by any Rule prescribed for new direction; and having satisfactorily arrived at this determination, and discovered the purpose intended by the Rule, we shall not be apt to commit gross error, nor to swerve widely from the path of duty. By this course we are placed in the attitude of the Lawgiver, and in this situation are most likely to perceive the end and design proposed by power which prescribed the  rule of action at any time submitted for decision.
  The common defense of our Country, of which our State constitutes an integral Member, the regulation of its intercourse with other independent Powers, as well as the management and direction of such internal affairs as were thought essential to the well being of our Union, were committed by our Fathers to the United Councils of our Federal Republic.
  It is now more than Forty years since the affairs of