If any proposition, indeed, respecting the Constitution can be considered as unanswerably established, it is the doctrine of the Federalist, that the act by which it was ordained was “not a national, but a federal act;” having been ratified “by the people of America, not as individuals composing one nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they belong;” (Federalist, xxxix) that the Constitution, “the compact,” was established by “the States regarded as distinct and independent sovereigns.” (Ibid. no xl) It is, then, on this clear, broad, immutable foundation, that
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