"[44] "The laws
of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made under
_their_ authority," etc.[45] "Treason against the United States shall
consist only in levying war against _them_, or in adhering to _their_
enemies."[46] The Federal character of the Union is expressed by this
very phraseology, which recognizes the distinct integrity of its
members, not as fractional parts of one great unit, but as component
units of an association. So clear was this to contemporaries, that it
needed only to be pointed out to satisfy their scruples. We have seen
how effectual was the answer of Mr. Madison to the objections raised by
Patrick Henry. Mr. Tench Coxe, of Pennsylvania, one of the ablest
political writers of his generation, in answering a similar objection,
said: "If the Federal Convention had meant to exclude the idea of
'union'--that is, of several and separate sovereignties joining in a
confederacy--they would have said, 'We, the people of America'; for
union necessarily involves the idea of competent States, which complete
consolidation excludes."[47]
More than forty years afterward, when the gradual accretions to the
power, _prestige_, and influence of the central Government had grown to
such extent as to begin to hide from view the purposes for which it was
founded, those very objections, which in the beginning had been
answered, abandoned, and thrown aside, were brought to light again, and
presented to the country as expositions of the true meaning of the
Constitution.
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