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from any exterior power, lay upon any State to adopt the constitution.

4. They fixed their terms as sovereign powers.* The people, not as one consolidated mass, but as the people of the particular states, acting under their own respective systems, adopted the constitution. States and people, in this deed, are terms equivalent and convertible. Men not united. under principles of order, however numerous, are not a People.

5. They carried into the Union their former appellation, adopted in the Declaration of Independence, continued in the confederation of 1778, and, in 1783, acknowledged in the treaty of peace by George III, viz: The United States,' as expressive of their individual sovereignty though in union-to the rejection of the term nation, which would imply the destruction of that sovereignty.

6. The federal constitution is no more than a modification of their former articles of Union, extending some farther the delegation of powers to their agents, the representatives of the states in the confederacy; but by no means affecting their own sovereignty in all the reserved residuary powers; and even in reference to their portion of delegated authority, they, as States, retained and still retain a controlling power over it, to modify or recall it at their pleasure. Yet no one state may withdraw from the Union except upon revolutionary principles; and for causes justifying revolution.t

You can, at leisure, follow out these considerations, and with me I doubt not you are ready to say,-Before this can be considered as a national government, language must change its meaning, and ideas be inverted in their import.

* New-York has not yet blotted from her records, the terms on which she acceded to the Union, among which is the following: "That the judicial power of the United States, in laws in which a state may be a party, does not extend to criminal prosecutions, or to authorize any suit by any person against a state.'

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A distinguished jurist already named, seems to hold, what I should have doubted, that any state may, when in its sovereign character it shall so determine, secede from the Union; and that no obligation, beyond their own pleasure, lies even upon the territories, when they become states, to enter into the confederacy. When they adopt their constitutions, if republican in their form, and they ask admission into the Union, they must be received; but into it they cannot be, constitutionally, compelled to enter.-Vid. Rawle, pp. 300, 301, 302.

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V. The reserved power to amend the constitution, evinces sovereignty in the states, and its exercise is altogether federal, and not national.

In confirmation of this argument, and to show its application to the point before us, let it be noted,

1. That it excludes at once the idea proposed by Mr. Madison, in the convention, of the states being reduced to mere municipal corporations. The sovereign power may modify the corporation which it creates; but the corporation cannot touch the sovereign that gave it being.

2. The federal government neither can amend its own, nor modify a state constitution. All the power of the Congress, the President, and Judiciary, united, cannot add an article to either of these; nor can the people, as one body, acting under one consolidated system do it; and that for the strongest of all reasons,—no such people exist, and no such system has obtained.

3. The amendments to the constitution of the United States must be made by the states, and that in their sovereign capacity. Three fourths of the states, acting as states, have it in their power to amend the federal constitution; to modify, abridge, extend, or reclaim, any portion of the power delegated to the federal government.

4. The people of the several states may modify, amend, or alter their own respective constitutions; making such distribution of their residuary powers of sovereignty, as may to them seem advisable, they retaining the republican form; and with them, in so doing, the federal government may not interfere. You will from these items infer, and very fairly, that if the appellation of municipal corporation be applicable to any of the parties before us, it is to the government of the Union, and not to that of the individual States.

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VI. The states themselves assert and exercise sovereignty. In a former letter, I adverted to this fact. its importance I recur to it again; but do not pursue it, being assured that your own acquaintance with the style and spirit of the constitutions and administrations of the several commonwealths, will supply you with abundant evidence of my assertion, and of its important bearing,

VII. State sovereignty and the federate character of the United States government are admitted, by those who were advocates of a consolidated form, as well as by those of an opposite creed.

In proof of this position I refer you to the Federalist, which records the sentiments of two of its distinguished authors-Madison and Hamilton. The debates of the convention show them both to have been advocates of what they considered, at that period, a stronger government than that which they obtained.

1. Mr. Madison admits the government (6 to be of a mixed character, presenting at least as many federal as national features. The local authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority, than the general authority is to them within its own sphere. In this respect then, the proposed government cannot be deemed one, since its jurisdiction extends to certain limited objects only, and leaves to the several states a a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects. Again: "The States will retain a very considerable portion of active sovereignty. The powers delegated to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain to the State governments are numerous and indefinite."+

says:

2. Mr. Hamilton "The State governments, by their original constitutions, are invested with complete sovereignty." And in No. 32 of the Federalist, he goes on, in proof of the sovereignty of the states, to show the consistency of the concurrent exercise of power by the state and federal authorities. Much more from both these writers might be adduced. I offer the above as a specimen. In a letter of Mr. Madison, now before me, to the editor of the North American Review, dated August, 1830, he says, "The Constitution is a compact," and he very justly intimates, that it provides in itself for its own exposition.

Legislative resolutions and opinions of other distinguished individuals might be adduced in proof of my general view of the subject, but I forbear. The suggestion of the statesman who now occupies the second place in the government, appears +Idem, No. 45.

*Fed. No. 39.

Id. No. 31.

happily calculated to illustrate the point; that the government is to be considered as partaking of the character of a joint commission, appointed for a specified service, and limited by special instructions to the objects which that service presents.

VIII. What is usually denominated "The House of Representatives," is equally federal, and in its appointment State sovereignty is no less conspicuous.

In proof of this position observe,

1. It was, and still is, the pleasure of the states, as states, in the exercise of their sovereignty, that in the federal government there should be two legislative branches; and they accordingly fixed the manner of their appointment: the Senate immediately by their own legislatures, and the other house directly by the people of the states. But the one, as really as the other, represents the states for federal purposes. They are both federal, originating from the same source, having before them the same ultimate ends; and differing only in the manner of their appointment, some immediate duties and term of service; but not in their federate character.

2. There is no consolidated national people, distinct from the people of the states, as such, to be represented in any department of the government.

3. The state directs the time, and the mode of election, and settles the qualifications of the electors of members of congress; which are frequently different in the different states.

4. The legislative actings of the lower house operate no more directly, nor otherwise, upon the people, than do those of the senate which all confess to be federal in its character. 5. This complex legislature is a Congress. The Senate is not the Congress; the other house is not the Congress; but both, assembled in their respective halls, constitute the Congress of the United States. The language of the constitution is-" All legislative powers, herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives."* Language is imperfect, and, in this instance, the terms, "house of representatives," are not very distinctive; for surely the senate is as really a representative body, as that so denominated. If, however, the thing be understood, names are of less account.

*Cons. Art. i. Sec. 1.

6. The two houses constitute the Congress of the United States. The term Congress, when used by statesmen, and in affairs of state, is technical in its import, and is well understood. It does not indicate the immediate representatives of individuals, appointed under a consolidated authority; but the assembled representatives of sovereign states or nations. Such is its import in the case before us, and this import goes to confirm the truth of the nature of the United States government, as the result of a federal compact, sustained by the sovereign states in league.

IX. The President of the United States is a federal officer, appointed by the States in their sovereign capacity, and not exclusively a national functionary.

The immediate electors of the President are appointed by the several states; the manner of their appointment is dif ferent in different states; in a given case, the presidential election is directly by states; and, when it is so, the smallest has as much power as the largest ;-Delaware with her few thousands, is equal to New-York with her millions. But whether the ordinary or more unusual mode be acted on, each is equally by state sovereignty, and the chosen functionary is equally a federal and, as regards the states, not a national officer.

X. The fact of each state, however small its territory or few its inhabitants, being entitled to appear by representation in the Congress of the Union ;-the cession of territory by the particular states to the Confederacy, and, in certain cases, the continued extension of their law over the ceded district;-the incapability of a state to be prosecuted at law by an individual; the universally admitted fact of the senate of the United States being a body representing the several states, and that, in its formation, they act as sovereigns, afford so many distinct proofs, which may be followed out at pleasure, showing with irrefutable evidence the federal character of the government. To do this is left to you. I pursue it no farther.

Indeed, upon a case so plain, perhaps, I have been too long in feeling the danger of exhausting your patience; and yet the evidence is so abundant, the proof so strong, and the subject so important, that I am tempted still farther to prolong my remarks. Federal government and sovereign states are

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