Lord Brougham in his _Political Philosophy_, alluding to the unique
character of the government created by the constitution of the United
States, writes:
"There is not, as with us, a government only and its subjects to be
regarded; but a number of governments, of states, having each a
separate and substantive, and even independent existence, originally
thirteen now six and twenty, and each having a Legislature of its own
with laws differing from those of the other states. It is plainly
impossible to consider the constitution which professes to govern this
whole Union, this federacy of states, as anything other than a
treaty."[405]
John Quincy Adams, speaking before the New York Historical Society in
1839, on the fiftieth anniversary of Washington's inauguration as
President of the United States, said:
"To the people alone there is reserved as well the dissolving as the
constituent power and that power can be exercised by them only under
the tie of conscience binding them to the retributive justice of
Heaven.
"With these qualifications we may admit the right as vested in the
people of every state of the Union with reference to the General
Government which was exercised by the people of the United Colonies
with reference to the supreme head of the British Empire of which they
formed a part and under these limitations have the people of each
state of the Union a right to secede from the Confederated Union
itself."[406]