"I think not."
"Would you think that the States had formed a partnership for the general good of all?"
"Of course, Doctor; but I am not quite sure that the word 'partnership' is the correct term."
"Shall we call it a league? A compact? A federation? A confederacy?"
"I should prefer the word 'union' to any of those," I said. "The title of the republic means a union."
"What is the difference between a union and a confederacy?"
"I don't know that there is any great difference; but the word 'union' seems to me to imply greater permanence."
"You think, then, that the United States must exist always?"
"I think that our fathers believed that they were acting for all time--so far as they could," said I; "but, of course, there were differences, even among the framers of the constitution."
"Suppose that at some time a State or several States should believe that their interests were being destroyed and that injustice was being done."