" It is submitted whether a fuller justification of this right
of the nine States to form a new Government is not found in the fact of
the sovereignty in each of them, making them "a law unto themselves,"
and therefore the final judge of what the necessities of each community
demand.
Here--although, perhaps, in advance of its proper place in the
argument--the attention of the reader may be directed to the refutation,
afforded by this article of the Constitution, of that astonishing
fiction, which has been put forward by some distinguished writers of
later date, that the Constitution was established by the people of the
United States "in the aggregate." If such had been the case, the will of
a majority, duly ascertained and expressed, would have been binding upon
the minority. No such idea existed in its formation. It was not even
established by the _States in the aggregate_, nor was it proposed that
it should be. It was submitted for the acceptance of each separately,
the time and place at their own option, so that the dates of
ratification did extend from December 7, 1787, to May 29, 1790. The long
period required for these ratifications makes manifest the absurdity of
the assertion, that it was a decision by the votes of one people, or one
community, in which a majority of the votes cast determined the result.
We have seen that the delegates to the Convention of 1787 were chosen by
the several States, _as States_--it is hardly necessary to add that they
voted in the Convention, as in the Federal Congress, by States--each
State casting one vote.
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