Government by the Constitution were merely transfers of some of
those possessed by the State governments--not subtractions from the
reserved and inalienable sovereignty of the political communities which
conferred them. It was merely the institution of a new agent who,
however enlarged his powers might be, would still remain subordinate and
responsible to the source from which they were derived--that of the
sovereign people of each State. It was an amended Union, not a
consolidation.

It is a remarkable fact that the very powers of the Federal Government
and prohibitions to the States, which are most relied upon by the
advocates of centralism as incompatible with State sovereignty, were in
force under the old Confederation when the sovereignty of the States was
expressly recognized. The General Government had then, as now, the
exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, making
treaties and alliances, maintaining an army and navy, granting letters
of marque and reprisal, regulating coinage, establishing and controlling
the postal service--indeed, nearly all the so-called "characteristic
powers of sovereignty" exercised by the Federal Government under the
existing Constitution, except the regulation of commerce, and of levying
and collecting its revenues directly, instead of through the
interposition of the State authorities. The exercise of these
first-named powers was prohibited to the States under the old compact,
"without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled," but no
one has claimed that the Confederation had thereby acquired sovereignty.

Entirely in accord with these truths are the arguments of Mr. Madison in
the "Federalist," to show that the great principles of the Constitution
are substantially the same as those of the Articles of Confederation. He
says:

"I ask, What are these principles? Do they require that, in the
establishment of the Constitution, the States should be regarded
as distinct and independent sovereigns? They _are_ so regarded
by the Constitution proposed.... Do these principles, in fine,
require that the powers of the General Government should be
limited, and that, beyond this limit, the States should be left
in possession of their sovereignty and independence? We have
seen that, in the new Government as in the old, the general
powers are limited; and that the States, in all unenumerated
cases, are left in the enjoyment