It is impossible to predicate answers to the foregoing queries, and others which might be propounded, on any principle which does not recognize the States as distinct governments, as separate, independent, sovereign communities, as segregate nations.

So long as the doctrine under discussion is in vogue, and forms the pivot on which the government swings, the State sovereignties must keep sentinels on the look-out over their reserved rights. So long as it is in the ascendant, there is no guaranty for them in the Constitution.

Whence a dogma so prima-facially, as well as essentially at variance with the facts of our history, during the colonial, revolutionary, and confederation æras, could take its origin, seems difficult, at first sight, to say. But, in applying the principles of a proper analysis, in tracing out causes through their effects, it will be found that this false doctrine had its rise, and derives its support, from the vague and unsettled ideas which have been, and still are, held in regard to the word States. In reading all that has been written or spoken on this matter, from the first dawn of discussions on the Constitution to this hour, we must be struck with the vague, indistinct, indefinite, and fluctuating sense in which this word is used. It is proper, therefore, that it be reduced to a proper precision,-that it be chiselled down into well-defined symmetry and dimensions. We shall than have clear ground before us, and be enabled to take that free and unfettered ab ovo start which is necessary to the satisfactory and successful prosecution of all useful inquiries. We therefore remark:

1st. State may mean a certain tract of country of certain form and extent, lying within certain limits or boundaries, the habitation and domain of a sovereign political community. This is State in its geographical sense.

2. State may mean the government, the civil organization, of such political community, existing and acting within and over such tract of country, and embracing the executive, legislative, judicial, and other functionaries, who are employed in effectuating the objects of such organiization, and the people in the character of citizens of that government. This is State in its organized or govern

ment sense.

3. State may mean the people inhabiting and possessing

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such tract of country, considered in their first social condition, the condition in which all people exist antecedent to the formation of government, in which their will and welfare are the source, the centre and the end of all power, in which they act en masse, as the sole, omnipotent potentate, creating or overthrowing, re-creating or changing, the social edifice, how and when it pleases; in which they are the great, elementary, sovereign tribunal, whence laws and governments take their origin and their sanctions, and against whose decrees there is no reclamation or appeal. This is State in its primitive and sovereign sense.

This last is the sense in which the States are members of this Union, the sense in which the people acted when they formed the Constitution,-"We the People of the United States," each "State" within the limits of its own domain, in the exercise of its own omnipotent will, for its own individual benefit.

It is from not attending properly to this distinction, from not adopting and maintaining clear and definite views in regard to it, that so much evil has sprung, so much false argument, false doctrine, false interpretation and false action been promulgated and perpetrated, under the plain precepts of a legible and simple governmental charter. Confounding the States with the State Governments, and considering the words only as convertible terms; and because the latter de facto did not, and de jure could not, form the Constitution; and because "we, the People of the United States" did form it; the Supreme Court, and all the elèves of that political school, by the most signal petitio principii extant, jump to the conclusion, that it was formed by the people of the United States, as one national mass, and that, therefore, that people are one national mass! Had the Chief Justice, in the celebrated Macculloch case, opened his eyes to the foregoing distinction, before he delivered his splendid opinion in that great controversy, we should have seen the Jupiter of the consolidationists divested of his thunder. Had Mr. Webster opened his eyes to it, in his great controversies in the Senate, in relation to the nature and powers of the Federal Government, he would have seen himself, colossus as he is, a colossus of brass standing on legs of Clay. And had Mr. Hayne taken clear views of it, and applied them properly, we should have seen a great cause

triumphantly supported, and not have witnessed a strong man, possessed of ample sinews and muscles, and of indomitable prowess, fail of his momentum and his laurels, at the hour of victory, in consequence of wanting a backbone!

The doctrine, that the people, in forming the Constitution, acted in the character of separate, sovereign states, is the marrow, the very sensorium, of our democratic system. Every power, and every part, of the constitutional machinery, draws from it its life, its strength, and its soundness of action. It is vital and fundamental. It should be ingrained in the entire structure of the American mind. It should form the alpha and omega of our political alphabet; be taught in our primary schools; and be made to grow and expand with the growth and evolutions of the adolescent intellect. In characters, durable as our central rocks, it should be inscribed on the portals of our adult understandings; and, with necks of iron, and brows of brass, we should maintain its eternal truth. On this grand doctrine, we plant ourselves; here concentrate and marshal our forces; upon this high basis, unfurl our principles to the winds of heaven.

We proceed to make some remarks on the nature of the Federal Government, to give a rationale of what we conceive to be its character, its structure, and its sphere of action. But, before we do this, and, as preliminary thereto, we will lay down some axioms, which we consider to be the instituta, the plinth and base, of the social compact.

1. The people, of all countries, are the true and only source of power. Their will, is the great agent which reduces the preëxisting chaos into order and harmony, and, from the commingling and clashing elements, evokes, and endows with organization and life, the social fabric. Their happiness and welfare, are the sole objects and end of all political institutions. Their intentions and purposes, are the sole standards for the guidance of the apparatus of government, the sole chart, for the direction of official agents, and all derivative functionaries.

2. The people, of all countries, stand, in relation to the government under which they live, in the two-fold relation, Ist., of cause; 2d., of effect,-1st., of creators; 2d., of creatures, 1st., of people; 2d., of citizens, or subjects. In

the first relation, they are they, who alone possess elementary, underived sovereignty; who call into existence the official agent, or government; put it into action, and uphold it in that action. Having accomplished this creative act, they resolve themselves from their congregative sovereignty, into their several isolated individualities; and, in this new shape, swear allegiance to the government now set up. Thus, they become the creatures, the citizens, of the government they have created. In the first relation, it is they, and they only, who know, without dubitation or controversy, what are the true form, the true action, the true objects, and the true bearings of the government; for it was their intention, which furnished it with all the meaning it contains; it was their welfare, which formed the sole end of its creation; and it was their power, which, having formed, projected it in its orbit, and now binds it in its revolution. In this first relation, their knowledge, like their power, is paramount, final, irresistible, supreme; and any form, meaning, or action, not in unison with this knowledge, which the government may be made to assume, is illegal, null and void,-is usurpation and treason. In their second relation, viz., that of creatures, or citizens, the people are not to know, in doubtful or disputed cases, what is the true and proper meaning of the Constitution and Laws, but must leave it to the exposition and decision of the tribunal which they, in their relation or character of creators, have appointed to adjudicate on the subject.

3. The people, of all countries, being the sole fountain of political power, the essential and ultimate sovereign,— and governments, merely the representatives and agents of their will; they have the right, and the power, whenever they are pleased to exercise them, to assemble in their first character or relation, without the intervention, concurrence, or control of any supervenient or derivative agent or functionary.

4. The opinions of the people, in their second, that is, their citizen, or creative relation or character, however loudly, or by whatsoever numbers, expressed, are never to be considered as setting aside, or as competent to set aside, or as in any way modifying, or changing, the precepts or stipulations which they, in their first, that is, their creator relation, have laid down, as the fundamental charter of the

government. An established constitution, or form of government, is, therefore, to be considered fixed, permanent, unalterable, and paramountly imperative, till it shall have been done away, or changed, by the same power which created it. Hence, what was once unlawful, unauthorized, and clearly against the letter and spirit of a fundamental code, or constitution, can never be changed, or become lawful, or constitutional, by the action or influence of any secondary causes or contingencies whatsoever.

5. The sovereign power of an independent people, is never to be considered as having changed a constitution, or form of government, which they have once set up, or as having added to its provisions, till they have again assembled in their primordial capacity, and have clearly and expressly made such alterations or additions. No created

power is competent to do this, except on the principle of prospective attribution, or a delegation of power for that express purpose, duly made, beforehand, by the creating sovereign.

6. A state, that is, a government, or nation, is a political body, composed of the official organization, and the people considered in their citizen relation. By official organization, we mean, the various depositaries of legislative and administrative power, taken as a whole.

7. Sovereignty is the faculty, innate and connate, underived and underivable, supreme, and irresponsible, of a people, to establish, according to their own pleasure, whatever relates to the condition or well-being of the body politic, of creating, changing and controlling, according to their own will, the form and action of governmental organization, the political omnipotence, which gives to the social body, its life, breath and being,-which originates and absorbs the principle and the duty of allegiance.

When the people of the states formed their civil polity, they did two things: they formed a General Government, and a local, or State Government, each State acting by itself, and for itself. And, they divided their sovereign attributes into three classes, or portions. One of these portions, they gave, or delegated, to the General Government,--another portion to the State Governments, and the third portion, they did not delegate, but retained to themselves.

With regard to the General Government. Though each