Iredell, James. Observations on George Mason’s Objections to the Federal Constitution. By Marcus
[Answers to Mr. Mason’s objections to the new Constitution, recommended by the late Convention. By Marcus. Newbern: Printed by Hodge and Wills. 1788.]
By James Iredell, member of the first North Carolina Convention. This argument was originally published in the State Gazette of North Carolina, and was republished in pamphlet form, together with pieces by Archibald Maclaine and William R. Davie. The most careful search has not enabled me to find the pamphlet, so I am forced to reprint the “answers” from McRee’s Life of James Iredell, a work of considerable rarity; and in consequence the above title is certainly not that of the pamphlet.
“I have read with great pleasure your answer to Mr. Mason’s objections; and surely every man who read them, and on whom Mr. Mason’s observations, or indeed the arguments of those in opposition in general have had any effect, must be convinced that the objections to the constitution are without foundation.” Witherspoon to Iredell, April 3, 1788.
P. L. F.
I. Objection.
“There is no declaration of rights, and the laws of the general government being paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several States, the declarations of rights in the separate States are no security. Nor are the people secured even in the enjoyment of the benefit of the common law, which stands here upon no other foundation than its having been adopted by the respective acts forming the Constitutions of the several States.”