THE NATURE OF THE AMERICAN COMPACT.
The two principal expounders of the Constitution of the United States, in
the North, have been Daniel Webster and Joseph Story, both from
Massachusetts. Webster was, for a long time, a Senator in Congress, and
Story a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The latter has
written an elaborate work on the Constitution, full of sophistry, and not
always very reliable as to its facts. The great effort of both these men
has been to prove, that the Constitution is not a compact between the
States, but an instrument of government, formed by the _people_ of the
United States, as contra-distinguished from the States. They both admit,
that if the Constitution were a compact between the States, the States
would have a right to withdraw from the compact--all agreements between
States, in their sovereign capacity, being, necessarily, of no more
binding force than treaties. These gentlemen are not always very
consistent, for they frequently fall into the error of calling the
Constitution a compact, when they are not arguing this particular
question; in short, it is, and it is not a compact, by turns, according to
the use they intend to make of the argument. Mr. Webster's doctrine of the
Constitution, chiefly relied on by Northern men, is to be found in his
speech of 1833, in reply to Mr. Calhoun. It is in that speech that he
makes the admission, that if the Constitution of the United States is a
compact between the States, the States have the right to withdraw from it
at pleasure. He says, "If a league between sovereign powers have no
limitation as to the time of duration, and contains nothing making it
perpetual, it subsists only during the good pleasure of the parties,
although no violation be complained of. If in the opinion of either party
it be violated, such party may say he will no longer fulfil its
obligations, on his part, but will consider the whole league or compact as
at an end, although it might be one of its stipulations that it should be
perpetual."
In his "Commentaries on the Constitution," Mr. Justice Story says, "The
obvious deductions which may be, and indeed have been drawn, from
considering the Constitution a _compact between States_, are, that it
operates as a mere treaty, or convention between them, and has an
obligatory force no longer than suits their pleasure, or their consent
continues." The plain principles of public law, thus announced by these
distinguished jurists, cannot be controverted. If sovereign States make a
compact, although the object of the compact be the formation of a new
government for their common benefit, they have the right to withdraw from
that compact at pleasure, even though, in the words of Mr. Webster, "it
might be one of its stipulations that it should be perpetual."
There might, undoubtedly, be such a thing as State merger; that is, that
two States, for instance, might agree that the sovereign existence of one
of them should be merged in the other. In which case, the State parting
with its sovereignty could never reclaim it by peaceable means. But where
a State shows no intention of parting with its sovereignty, and, in
connection with other States, all equally jealous of their sovereignty
with herself, only delegates a part of it--never so large a part, if you
please--to a common agent, for the benefit of the whole, there can have
been no merger. This was eminently the case with regard to these United
States. No one can read the "Journal and Debates of the Philadelphia
Convention," or those of the several State Conventions to which the
Constitution was submitted for adoption, without being struck with the
scrupulous care with which all the States guarded their sovereignty. The
Northern States were quite as jealous, in this respect, as the Southern
States. Next to Massachusetts, New Hampshire has been, perhaps, the most
fanatical and bitter of the former States, in the prosecution of the late
war against the South. That State, in her Constitution, adopted in 1792,
three years after the Federal Constitution went into operation, inserted
the following provision, among others, in her declaration of principles:
"The people of this Commonwealth have the sole and exclusive right of
governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do,
and forever hereafter shall exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction,
and right which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them, expressly
delegated to the United States."
Although it was quite clear that the States, when they adopted the
Constitution of the United States, reserved, by implication, all the
sovereign power, rights, and privileges that had not been granted away--as
a power not given is necessarily withheld--yet so jealous were they of the
new government they were forming, that several of them insisted, in their
acts of ratification, that the Constitution should be so amended as
explicitly to declare this truth, and thus put it beyond cavil in the
future. Massachusetts expressed herself as follows, in connection with her
ratification of the Constitution: "As it is the opinion of this
Convention, that certain amendments and alterations in said Constitution
would remove the fears, and quiet the apprehensions of the good people of
the Commonwealth, and more effectually guard against an undue
administration of the Federal Government, the Convention do, therefore,
recommend that the following alteration and provisions be introduced in
said Constitution: First, that it be explicitly declared, that all powers
not delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are reserved to the several
States, to be by them exercised."
Webster and Story had not yet arisen in Massachusetts, to teach the new
doctrine that the Constitution had been formed by the "_People of the
United States_," in contra-distinction to the people of the States.
Massachusetts did not speak in the name of any such people, but in her own
name. She was not jealous of the remaining people of the United States, as
fractional parts of a whole, of which she was herself a fraction, but she
was jealous of them as _States_; as so many foreign peoples, with whom she
was contracting. The powers not delegated were to be reserved to those
_delegating_ them, to wit: the "_several States_;" that is to say, to each
and every one of the States.
Virginia fought long and sturdily against adopting the Constitution at
all. Henry, Mason, Tyler, and a host of other giants raised their
powerful voices against it, warning their people, in thunder tones, that
they were rushing upon destruction. Tyler even went so far as to say that
"British tyranny would have been more tolerable." So distasteful to her
was the foul embrace that was tendered her, that she not only recommended
an amendment of the Constitution, similar to that which was recommended by
Massachusetts, making explicit reservation of her sovereignty, but she
annexed a condition to her ratification, to the effect that she retained
the right to withdraw the powers which she had granted, "whenever the same
shall be perverted to her injury or oppression."
North Carolina urged the following amendment--the same, substantially, as
that urged by Virginia and Massachusetts: "That each State in the Union
shall respectively [not aggregately] retain every power, jurisdiction, and
right which is not by this Constitution delegated to the Congress of the
United States, or to the departments of the Federal Government."
Pennsylvania guarded her sovereignty by insisting upon the following
amendment: "All the rights of sovereignty which are not, by the said
Constitution, expressly and plainly vested in the Congress, shall be
deemed to remain with, and shall be exercised by the several States in the
Union." The result of this jealousy on the part of the States was the
adoption of the 10th amendment to the Constitution of the United States as
follows: "The powers not delegated to the United States, by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States, or to the people."
It is thus clear beyond doubt, that the States not only had no intention
of merging their sovereignty in the new government they were forming, but
that they took special pains to notify each other, as well as their common
agent, of the fact. The language which I have quoted, as used by the
States, in urging the amendments to the Constitution proposed by them, was
the common language of that day. The new government was a federal or
confederate government--in the "Federalist," it is frequently called a
"Confederation"--which had been created by the States for their common use
and benefit; each State taking special pains, as we have seen, to declare
that it retained all the sovereignty which it had not expressly granted
away. And yet, in face of these facts, the doctrine has been boldly
declared, in our day, that the Constitution was formed by the people of
the United States in the aggregate, as one nation, and that it has a force
and vitality independent of the States, which the States are incompetent
to destroy! The perversion is one not so much of doctrine as of history.
It is an issue of fact which we are to try.
It is admitted, that if the fact be as stated by our Northern brethren,
the conclusion follows: It is, indeed, quite plain, that if the States did
not create the Federal Constitution, they cannot destroy it. But it is
admitted, on the other hand, by both Webster and Story, as we have seen,
that if they did create it, they may destroy it; nay, that any one of them
may destroy it as to herself; that is, may withdraw from the compact at
pleasure, with or without reason. It is fortunate for us of the South that
the issue is so plain, as that it may be tried by the record. Sophistry
will sometimes overlie reason and blind men's judgment for generations;
but sophistry, with all its ingenuity, cannot hide a fact. The speeches of
Webster and the commentaries of Story have been unable to hide the fact of
which I speak; it stands emblazoned on every page of our constitutional
history.
Every step that was taken toward the formation of the Constitution of the
United States, from its inception to its adoption, was taken by the
States, and not by the people of the United States in the aggregate. There
was no such people known as the people of the United States, in the
aggregate, at the time of the formation of the Constitution. If there is
any such people now, it was formed by the Constitution. But this is not
the question. The question now is, who formed the Constitution, not what
was formed by it? If it was formed by the States, admit our adversaries,
it may be broken by the States.
The delegates who met at Annapolis were sent thither by the States, and
not by the people of the United States. The Convention of 1787, which
formed the Constitution, was equally composed of members sent to
Philadelphia by the States. James Madison was chosen by the people of
Virginia, and not by the people of New York; and Alexander Hamilton was
chosen by the people of New York, and not by the people of Virginia. Every
article, section, and paragraph of the Constitution was voted for, or
against, by States; the little State of Delaware, not much larger than a
single county of New York, off-setting the vote of that great State.
And when the Constitution was formed, to whom was it submitted for
ratification? Was there any convention of the people of the United States
in the aggregate, as one nation, called for the purpose of considering it?
Did not each State, on the contrary, call its own convention? and did not
some of the States accept it, and some of them refuse to accept it? It was
provided that when nine States should accept it, it should go into
operation; was it pretended that the vote of these nine States was to bind
the others? Is it not a fact, on the contrary, that the vote of eleven
States did _not_ bind the other two? Where was that great constituency,
composed of the people of the United States in the aggregate, as one
nation, all this time?
"But," say those who are opposed to us in this argument, "look at the
instrument itself, and you will see that it was framed by the people of
the United States, and not by the States. Does not its Preamble read thus:
'We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
Union, &c., do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America'?" Perhaps there has never been a greater literary and
historical fraud practised upon any people, than has been attempted in the
use to which these words have been put. And, perhaps, no equal number of
reading and intelligent men has ever before submitted so blindly and
docilely to be imposed upon by literary quackery and the legerdemain of
words, as our fellow-citizens of the North have in accepting Webster's and
Story's version of the preamble of the Constitution.
A brief history of the manner, in which the words, "We, the people," &c.,
came to be adopted by the Convention which framed the Constitution, will
sufficiently expose the baldness of the cheat. The only wonder is, that
such men as Webster and Story should have risked their reputations with
posterity, on a construction which may so easily be shown to be a
falsification of the facts of history. Mr. Webster, in his celebrated
speech in the Senate, in 1833, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, made this bold
declaration: "The Constitution itself, in its very front, declares, that
it was ordained and established by the people of the United States in the
aggregate!" From that day to this, this declaration of Mr. Webster has
been the chief foundation on which all the constitutional lawyers of the
North have built their arguments against the rights of the States as
sovereign copartners.
If the Preamble of the Constitution stood alone, without the lights of
contemporaneous history to reveal its true character, there might be some
force in Mr. Webster's position; but, unfortunately for him and his
followers, he has _misstated a fact_. It is not true, as every reader of
constitutional history must know, that the Constitution of the United
States was ordained by the people of the United States in the aggregate;
nor did the Preamble to the Constitution _mean to assert_ that it was
true. The great names of Webster, and Story have been lent to a palpable
falsification of history, and as a result of that falsification, a great
war has ensued, which has sacrificed its hecatomb of victims, and
desolated, and nearly destroyed an entire people. The poet did not say,
without reason, that "words are things." Now let us strip off the
disguises worn by these word-mongers, and see where the truth really lies.
Probably some of my readers will learn, for the first time, the reasons
which induced the framers of the Constitution to adopt the phraseology,
"We, the people," &c., in the formation of their Preamble to that
instrument. In the original draft of the Constitution, the States, by
name, were mentioned, as had been done in the Articles of Confederation.
The States had formed the old Confederation, the States were equally
forming the new Confederation; hence the Convention naturally followed in
their Preamble the form which had been set them in the old Constitution,
or Articles. This Preamble, purporting that the work of forming the new
government was being done by the States, remained at the head of the
instrument _during all the deliberations of the Convention_, and no one
member ever objected to it. It expressed a fact which no one thought of
denying. It is thus a fact beyond question, not only that the
Constitution was framed by the States, but that the Convention so
proclaimed in "_front of the instrument_."
Having been framed by the States, was it afterward adopted, or "ordained
and established," to use the words of Mr. Webster, by the people of the
United States, in the aggregate, and was this the reason why the words
were changed? There were in the Convention several members in favor of
submitting the instrument to the people of the United States in the
aggregate, and thereby accomplishing their favorite object of establishing
a consolidated government--Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris among
the number. On the "Journal of the Convention," the following record is
found: "Gouverneur Morris moved that the reference of the plan [i. e. of
the Constitution] be made to one General Convention, chosen and authorized
by the people, to consider, amend, and establish the same." Thus the
question, as to who should "ordain and establish" the Constitution,
whether it should be the people in the aggregate, or the people of the
States, was clearly presented to the Convention. How did the Convention
vote on this proposition? The reader will perhaps be surprised to learn,
that the question was not even brought to a vote, for want of a second;
and yet this is the fact recorded by the Convention.
The reader who has read Mr. Madison's articles in the "Federalist," and
his speeches before the Virginia Convention, in favor of the ratification
of the Constitution, will perhaps be surprised to learn that he, too, made
a somewhat similar motion. He was not in favor, it is true, of referring
the instrument for adoption to a General Convention of the whole people,
alone, but he was in favor of referring it to such a Convention, in
connection with Conventions to be called by the States, thus securing a
joint or double ratification, by the people of the United States in the
aggregate, and by the States; the effect of which would have been to make
the new government a still more complex affair, and to muddle still
further the brains of Mr. Webster and Mr. Justice Story. But this motion
failed also, and the Constitution was referred to the States for adoption.
But now a new question arose, which was, whether the Constitution was to
be "ordained and established" by the legislatures of the States, or by
the people of the States in Convention. All were agreed, as we have seen,
that the instrument should be referred to the States. This had been
settled; but there were differences of opinion as to how the States should
act upon it. Some were in favor of permitting each of the States to
choose, for itself, how it would ratify it; others were in favor of
referring it to the legislatures, and others, again, to the people of the
States in Convention. It was finally decided that it should be referred to
Conventions of the people, in the different States.
This being done, their work was completed, and it only remained to refer
the rough draft of the instrument to the "Committee on Style," to prune
and polish it a little--to lop off a word here, and change or add a word
there, the better to conform the language to the sense, and to the
proprieties of grammar and rhetoric. The Preamble, as it stood, at once
presented a difficulty. All the thirteen States were named in it as
adopting the instrument, but it had been provided, in the course of its
deliberations by the Convention, that the new government should go into
effect if nine States adopted it. Who could tell which these nine States
would be? It was plainly impossible to enumerate all the States--for all
of them might not adopt it--or any particular number of them, as adopting
the instrument.
Further, it having been determined, as we have seen, that the Constitution
should be adopted by the people of the several States, as
contra-distinguished from the legislatures of the States, the phraseology
of the Preamble must be made to express this idea also. To meet these two
new demands upon the phraseology of the instrument, the Committee on Style
adopted the expression, "We, the people of the United States,"--meaning,
as every one must see, "We, the people of the several States united by
this instrument." And this is the foundation that the Northern advocates
of a consolidated government build upon, when they declare that the people
of the United States in the aggregate, as one nation, adopted the
Constitution, and thus gave the fundamental law to the States, instead of
the States giving it to the Federal Government.
It is well known that this phrase, "We, the people," &c., became a
subject of discussion in the Virginia ratifying Convention. Patrick Henry,
with the prevision of a prophet, was, as we have seen, bitterly opposed to
the adoption of the Constitution. He was its enemy _a l'outrance_. Not
having been a member of the Convention, of 1787, that framed the
instrument, and being unacquainted with the circumstances above detailed,
relative to the change which had been made in the phraseology of its
Preamble, he attacked the Constitution on the very ground since assumed by
Webster and Story, to wit: that the instrument itself proclaimed that it
had been "ordained and established" by the people of the United States in
the aggregate, instead of the people of the States. Mr. Madison replied to
Henry on this occasion. Madison had been in the Convention, knew, of
course, all about the change of phraseology in question, and this was his
reply: "The parties to it [the Constitution] were the people, but not the
people as composing one great society, but the people as composing
thirteen sovereignties. If it were a consolidated government," continued
he, "the assent of a majority of the people would be sufficient to
establish it. But it was to be binding on the people of a State only by
their own separate consent." There was, of course, nothing more to be
said, and the Virginia Convention adopted the Constitution.
Madison has been called the Father of the Constitution. Next to him,
Alexander Hamilton bore the most conspicuous part in procuring it to be
adopted by the people. Hamilton, as is well known, did not believe much in
republics; and least of all did he believe in federal republics. His great
object was to establish a consolidated republic, if we must have a
republic at all. He labored zealously for this purpose, but failed. The
States, without an exception, were in favor of the federal form; and no
one knew better than Hamilton the kind of government which had been
established.
Now let us hear what Hamilton, an unwilling, but an honest witness, says
on this subject. Of the eighty-five articles in the "Federalist," Hamilton
wrote no less than fifty. Having failed to procure the establishment of a
consolidated government, his next great object was, to procure the
adoption by the States of the present Constitution, and to this task,
accordingly, he now addressed his great intellect and powerful energies.
In turning over the pages of the "Federalist," we can scarcely go amiss in
quoting Hamilton, to the point that the Constitution is a compact between
the States, and not an emanation from the people of the United States in
the aggregate. Let us take up the final article, for instance, the 85th.
In this article we find the following expressions: "The compacts which are
to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond of amity and Union,
must necessarily be compromises of as many dissimilar interests and
inclinations." Again: "The moment an alteration is made in the present
plan, it becomes, to the purpose of adoption, a new one, and must undergo
a new decision of each State. To its complete establishment throughout the
Union, it will, therefore, require the concurrence of thirteen States."
And again: "Every Constitution for the United States must, inevitably,
consist of a great variety of particulars, in which thirteen _Independent
States_ are to be accommodated in their interests, or opinions of
interests. * * * Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the
particulars which are to compose the whole in such a manner as to satisfy
all the _parties to the compact_." Thus, we do not hear Hamilton, any more
than Madison, talking of a "people of the United States in the aggregate"
as having anything to do with the formation of the new charter of
government. He speaks only of States, and of compacts made or to be made
by States.
In view of the great importance of the question, whether it was the people
of the United States in the aggregate who "ordained and established" the
Constitution, or the States,--for this, indeed, is the whole _gist_ of the
controversy between the North and South,--I have dwelt somewhat at length
on the subject, and had recourse to contemporaneous history; but this was
scarcely necessary. The Constitution itself settles the whole controversy.
The 7th article of that instrument reads as follows: "The ratification of
the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment
of the Constitution between the States so ratifying the same." How is it
possible to reconcile this short, explicit, and unambiguous provision with
the theory I am combating? The Preamble, as explained by the Northern
consolidationists, and this article, cannot possibly stand together. It is
not possible that the people of the United States in the aggregate, as one
nation, "ordained and established" the Constitution, and that the States
ordained and established it at the same time; for there was but one set of
Conventions called, and these Conventions were called by the States, and
acted in the names of the States.
Mr. Madison did, indeed, endeavor to have the ratification made in both
modes, but his motion in the Convention to this effect failed, as we have
seen. Further, how could the Constitution be binding only between the
States that ratified it, if it was not ratified--that is, not "ordained
and established"--by them at all, but by the people of the United States
in the aggregate? As remarked by Mr. Madison, in the Virginia Convention,
a ratification by the people, in the sense in which this term is used by
the Northern consolidationists, would have bound all the people, and there
would have been no option left the dissenting States. But the 7th article
says that they shall have an option, and that the instrument is to be
binding only _between such of them as ratify it_.
With all due deference, then, to others who have written upon this vexed
question, and who have differed from me in opinion, I must insist that the
proof is conclusive that the Constitution is a compact between the States;
and this being so, we have the admission of both Mr. Webster and Justice
Story that any one of the States may withdraw from it at pleasure.