Since the assertion of their independence, the people of the United
States have never acted otherwise than as the people of each State,
severally and separately. The Articles of Confederation were established
and ratified by the several States, either through conventions of their
people or through the State Legislatures. The Constitution which
superseded those articles was framed, as we have seen, by delegates
chosen and empowered by the several States, and was ratified by
conventions of the people of the same States--all acting in entire
independence of one another. This ratification alone gave it force and
validity. Without the approval and ratification of the people of the
States, it would have been, as Mr. Madison expressed it, "of no more
consequence than the paper on which it was written." It was never
submitted to "the people of the United States in the aggregate," or _as
a people_. Indeed, no such political community as the people of the
United States in the aggregate exists at this day or ever did exist.
Senators in Congress confessedly represent the States as equal units.
The House of Representatives is not a body of representatives of "the
people of the United States," as often erroneously asserted; but the
Constitution, in the second section of its first article, expressly
declares that it "shall be composed of members chosen by _the people of
the several States_."
Nor is it true that the President and Vice-President are elected, as it
is sometimes vaguely stated, by vote of the "whole people" of the Union.
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