of these principles was practiced or proposed or even
imagined in the case of the action of the people of the United States
(if they were one political community) upon the proposed Constitution.
On the contrary, seventy thousand people in the State of Delaware had
precisely the same weight--one vote--in its ratification, as seven
hundred thousand (and more) in Virginia, or four hundred thousand in
Pennsylvania. Would not this have been an intolerable grievance and
wrong--would no protest have been uttered against it--if these had been
fractional parts of one community of people?

Again, while the will of the consenting majority _within_ any State was
binding on the opposing minority in the same, no majority, or
majorities, of States or people had any control whatever upon the people
of _another_ State. The Constitution was established, not "_over_ the
States," as asserted by Motley, but "_between_ the States," and only
"between _the States so ratifying_ the same." Little Rhode Island, with
her seventy thousand inhabitants, was not a mere fractional part of "the
people of the whole land," during the period for which she held aloof,
but was as free, independent, and unmolested, as any other sovereign
power, notwithstanding the majority of more than three millions of "the
whole people" on the other side of the question.

Before the ratification of the Constitution--when there was some excuse
for an imperfect understanding or misconception of the terms
proposed--Mr. Madison thus answered, in advance, the objections made on
the ground of this misconception, and demonstrated its fallacy. He
wrote:

"That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these
terms are understood by objectors--the act of the people, as
forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate
nation--is obvious from this single consideration, that it is to
result neither from the decision of a _majority_ of the people
of the Union nor from that of a _majority_ of _the States_. It
must result from the _unanimous_ assent of the several _States
that are parties to it_, differing no otherwise from their
ordinary assent than in its being expressed, not by the
legislative authority, but by that of the people themselves.
Were the people regarded in this transaction as forming one
nation, the will of the majority of the whole people of the
United States would bind the minority, in the same