d by common interest with each
other. Leagues were formed for common defense, and before the
Declaration of Independence, we were known in our aggregate character as
the United Colonies of America. That decisive and important step was
taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several
acts; and when the terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it
was in that of a solemn league of several States, by which they agreed
that they would, collectively, form one nation, for the purpose of
conducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign relations. In
the instrument forming that Union, is found an article which declares
that "every State shall abide by the determinations of Congress on all
questions which by that Confederation should be submitted to them."

Under the Confederation, then, no State could legally annul a decision
of the Congress, or refuse to submit to its execution; but no provision
was made to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but
they were not complied with. The government could not operate on
individuals. They had no judiciary, no means of collecting revenue.

But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed. Under its
operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We had neither
prosperity at home nor consideration abroad. This state of things could
not be endured, and our present happy Constitution was formed, but
formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine prevails. It was formed for
important objects that are announced in the preamble made in the name
and by the authority of the people of the United States, whose delegates
framed, and whose conventions approved, it.

The most important among these objects, that which is placed first in
rank, on which all the others rest, is "_to form a more perfect Union_."
Now, it is possible that, even if there were no express provision giving
supremacy to the Constitution and laws of the United States over those
of the States, it can be conceived that an instrument made for the
purpose of "_forming a more perfect Union_" than that of the
Confederation, could be so constructed by the assembled wisdom of our
country as to substitute for that confederation a form of government,
dependent for its existence on the local interest, the party spirit of a
State, or of a prevailing faction in a State? Every man, of plain,
unsophisticated understanding, who hears the question, will give such an
answer as will preser