“We have errors to correct. We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature, in forming our Confederation. Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power. I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without having lodged somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the State governments extends over the several States.”
These are the words of Washington; and he then proceeds:—
“To be fearful of investing Congress, constituted as that body is, with ample authorities for national purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity and madness.”[184]
The Constitution was duly transmitted by Congress to the several Legislatures, by which it was submitted to Conventions of delegates “chosen in each State by the people thereof,” who ratified the same. Afterwards, Congress, by resolution, dated September 13, 1788, setting forth that the Convention had reported “a Constitution for the people of the United States,” which had been duly ratified, proceeded to authorize the necessary elections under the new government.
The Constitution, it will be seen, was framed to remove difficulties arising from State Rights. So paramount was this purpose, that, according to the letter of Washington, it was kept steadily in view in all the deliberations of the Convention, which did not hesitate to declare the consolidation of our Union essential to prosperity, felicity, safety, and perhaps national existence.
The unity of the Government was expressed in the term “Constitution,” instead of “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States,” and in the idea of “a more perfect union,” instead of “a firm league of friendship.” It was also announced emphatically in the Preamble:—
“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Not “we, the States,” but “we, the people of the United States.” Such is the beginning and origin of our Constitution. Here is no compact or league between States, involving the recognition of State Rights, but a government ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves and their posterity. This government is not established by the States, nor is it established for the States; but it is established by the people, for themselves and their posterity. It is true, that, in the organization of the government, the existence of the States is recognized, and the original name of “United States” is preserved; but the sovereignty of the States is absorbed in that more perfect union which was then established. There is but one sovereignty recognized, and this is the sovereignty of the United States. To the several States is left that specific local control which is essential to the convenience and business of life, while to the United States, as Plural Unit, is allotted that commanding sovereignty which embraces and holds the whole country within its perpetual and irreversible jurisdiction.
This obvious character of the Constitution did not pass unobserved at the time of its adoption. Indeed, the Constitution was most strenuously opposed on the ground that the States were absorbed in the Nation. In the debates of the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry protested against consolidated power.
“And here I would make this inquiry of those worthy characters who composed a part of the late Federal Convention. I am sure they were fully impressed with the necessity of forming a great consolidated Government, instead of a Confederation. That this is a consolidated Government is demonstrable clear; and the danger of such a Government is to my mind very striking. I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen; but, Sir, give me leave to demand, What right had they to say, ‘We, the people’?… Who authorized them to speak the language of ‘We, the people,’ instead of ‘We, the States’?”[185]