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reign commonwealth. The convention of 1787 had simply "done what would have been waste paper, but for the life and validity, which was "done" to it by these thirteen absolutely sovereign wills. By these wills, and by them only, "the constitution of the united states' was " done," the federation formed, and the government "established."

The statement of Daniel Webster, in his speech of 1833, places this matter beyond controversy: "Until the constitution was ratified by nine states, it was but a proposal the mere draft of an instrument. It was like a deed drawn but not executed; . . . it was inoperative paper; . . . it had no authority; it spoke no language."

The constitution contains no sign of any other theory than the one herein set forth; and no leading father can be cited in opposition to it. The "powers" of the instrument must be delegations of states; the restrictions on states must be their agreements; the government must be their creation; the administrators of it must be their electees and agents; all "the people" must be their members, citizens, and allegiant subjects; all the voting authority and suffragists of the country are exclusively theirs; the only creating, ordaining, delegating, granting and owning authority, the instrument shows to be theirs; and, in short, the states are recognized and referred to everywhere, as the be-all and the end-all of the system.

The union of states is simply a voluntary association of sister republics. A change to involuntariness, or in other words, to an indissoluble union, cannot be made without destruction of the right of self-government, the very thing that characterizes a republic, and the degrading of the state to a province. And the imperialism or "absolute supremacy" of "the government," over allegiant states, exercised in keeping the states together against their respective wills, involves perjured usurpation and flagrant treason, on the part of federal officials.

In reflecting on this subject, it is well to keep constantly in mind these facts the federal government was created and placed over citizens, by the acts of their respective states; and each state, until she had fully deliberated, and, by adopting the constitution, had become a party, was acting in the character agreed on by all, in the solemn league and covenant then subsisting, to wit: "Each state retains her sovereignty." No power to constrain her will did or could then exist. Only a voluntary federation of sovereignties was possible; and it was formed.

It is also well to remember that, at the making of the union, states occupied all the country, and included all the people, and governed both, exclusively by their will, and hence left no persons or territory

to make a nation of. "The people" had no organized or political existence or capacity to act in political government, except as

states.

Only a Federation was possible. In the great work before them, the fathers had little or no opportunity for high creative or organizing statesmanship. The entities or materials to build with, were all matters of fact, pre-existent and perfect; the main conditions were all forewritten; and natural logic carried the architects, with the inexorableness of Divine decrees, to a federation. Neighboring, kindred, republican and friendly societies, each free and sovereign, and all with cognate principles and mutual interests, were to associate, to preserve themselves, and the precious rights of their members. They could but plan through agents, and themselves vitalize the plan. So that if Hamilton, Morris, Wilson, Washington, and others, really did. wish as some assert, though without proof-to consolidate or nationalize the states,

"They builded better than they knew!"

And they afterwards confessed that such purpose, if ever held, was not accomplished; and declared that a federation of sovereign commonwealths was actually made! [Part I., Chap. VII.]

PART III.

FALLACIOUS EXPOSITION.

"... full of subtile sophismes which doe play
With double sences, and with false debate."

FAERIE QUEENE.

PART III.

FALLACIOUS EXPOSITION.

THE

CHAPTER I.

CHARGES AND EXPOUNDINGS IDENTICAL.

HE false charges, made by the anti-federalists to defeat the constitution, though promptly met and decisively refuted, were subsequently adopted by the professed friends and so-called expounders of our system, as the true expositions thereof, a proceeding much like vindicating a man's character, by ascribing to him the evil traits which have been charged by his enemies for the purpose of destroying it.

These were ascriptions of intent and meaning; and though Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and all the rest of the constitutionists declared and conclusively showed — as is indicated in Part I., Chapter VII. — that the intent and meaning were directly the reverse of what was charged, yet most sedulously have the said expounders, during the last half of our century of federal liberty, asserted and taught the false and reprobated theory as the true one!

In so doing, they necessarily entered, and travelled in, the path of sophistry, and committed the flagrant wrongs now exposed. Comparison of Charges and Expoundings. I proceed to place the original and untrue charges, and the pretended expositions, side by side, under five heads, so that we can take in at a glance the gross interpretative impositions to which the American people have been so long subjected. The enemies and the expounders both contend that by the present constitution:

1. The states were made into one state;

2. A federacy was changed to a nation;

3. The general government is a sovereignty;

4. "The government" is the final judge of its authority;

5. A state and a county are alike in status, and equal in rights.

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