To the People of the State of New York:
THE author of the Notes on the State of Virginia, quoted in the last paper, has subjoined to that valuable
work the draught of a constitution, which had been prepared in order to be laid before a convention,
expected to be called in 1783, by the legislature, for the establishment of a constitution for that
commonwealth. The plan, like every thing from the same pen, marks a turn of thinking, original,
comprehensive, and accurate; and is the more worthy of attention as it equally displays a fervent
attachment to republican government and an enlightened view of the dangerous propensities against
which it ought to be guarded....
To the People of the State of New York:
TO WHAT expedient, then, shall we finally resort, for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of
power among the several departments, as laid down in the Constitution? The only answer that can be
given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so
contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their
mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places. Without presuming to
undertake a full development of this important idea, I will hazard a few general observations, which may
perhaps place it in a clearer light, and enable us to form a more correct judgment of the principles and
structure of the government planned by the convention.
In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of
government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of
liberty....
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To the People of the State of New York
IT MAY be contended, perhaps, that instead of occasional appeals to the people, which are liable to the
objections urged against them, periodical appeals are the proper and adequate means of preventing and
correcting infractions of the Constitution.
It will be attended to, that in the examination of these expedients, I confine myself to their aptitude for
enforcing the Constitution, by keeping the several departments of power within their due bounds, without
particularly considering them as provisions for altering the Constitution itself. In the first view, appeals to
the people at fixed periods appear to be nearly as ineligible as appeals on particular occasions as they
emerge. If the periods be separated by short intervals, the measures to be reviewed and rectified will have
been of recent date....
To the People of the State of New York:
FROM the more general inquiries pursued in the four last papers, I pass on to a more particular
examination of the several parts of the government. I shall begin with the House of Representatives.
The first view to be taken of this part of the government relates to the qualifications of the electors and the
elected. Those of the former are to be the same with those of the electors of the most numerous branch of
the State legislatures. The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental
article of republican government. It was incumbent on the convention, therefore, to define and establish
this right in the Constitution. To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the Congress, would
have been improper for the reason just mentioned. To have submitted it to the legislative discretion of the
States, would have been improper for the same reason; and for the additional reason that it would have
rendered too dependent on the State governments....
 
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