r, to show how much credence is to be given
to their authority as interpreters and expounders.

The reason why the names of the ratifying States were not mentioned has
already been given: it was simply because it was not known which States
would ratify. But, as regards mention of "the several States," "each
State," "any State," "particular States," and the like, the Constitution
is full of it. I am informed, by one who has taken the pains to examine
carefully that document with reference to this very point, that--without
including any mention of "the United States" or of "foreign states," and
excluding also the amendments--the Constitution, in its original draft,
makes mention of the States, _as_ States, no less than _seventy_ times;
and of these seventy times, only _three_ times in the way of prohibition
of the exercise of a power. In fact, it is full of statehood. Leave out
all mention of the States--I make no mere verbal point or quibble, but
mean the States in their separate, several, distinct capacity--and what
would remain would be of less account than the play of the Prince of
Denmark with the part of _Hamlet_ omitted.

But, leaving out of consideration for the moment all minor questions,
the vital and essential point of inquiry now is, by what authority the
Constitution was "ordained and established." Mr. Webster says it was
done "by the people of the United States in the aggregate;" Mr. Everett
repeats substantially the same thing; and Mr. Motley, taking a step
further, says that "it was 'ordained and established' by a _power
superior to the States_--by the people of the whole land in their
aggregate capacity."

The advocates of this mischievous dogma assume the existence of an
unauthorized, undefined power of a "whole people," or "people of the
whole land," operating through the agency of the Philadelphia
Convention, to impose its decrees upon the States. They forget, in the
first place, that this Convention was composed of delegates, not of any
one people, but of distinct States; and, in the second place, that their
action had no force or validity whatever--in the words of Mr. Madison,
that it was of no more consequence than the paper on which it was
written--until approved and ratified by a sufficient number of States.
The meaning of the preamble, "We, the people of the United States ... do
ordain and establish this Constitution," is ascertained, fixed, and
defined by the final article: "The ratification o