imilitudes and analogies applicable to other systems of government, it
must, more than any other, be its own interpreter, according to its
text and the facts in the case.

"From these it will be seen that the characteristic peculiarities of
the constitution are: 1. The mode of its formation. 2. The division of
the supreme powers of government between the States in their united
capacity and the States in their individual capacities.

"1. It was formed not by the governments of the component States, as
the Federal Government, for which it was substituted, was formed; nor
was it formed by a majority of the people of the United States as a
single community, in the manner of a consolidated government. It was
formed by the States; that is, by the people in each of the States,
acting in their highest sovereign capacity, and formed consequently by
the same authority which formed the State constitution.

"Being thus derived from the same source as the constitutions of the
States, it has within each State the same authority as the constitution
of the State, and is as much a constitution in the strict sense of the
term, within its prescribed sphere, as the constitutions of the States
are within their respective spheres; but with this obvious and
essential difference, that, being a compact among the States in their
highest capacity, and constituting the people thereof one people for
certain purposes, it cannot be altered or annulled at the will of the
States individually, as the constitution of a State may be at its
individual will.

"2. And that it divides the supreme powers of government between the
government of the United States and the governments of the individual
States, is stamped on the face of the instrument; the powers of war and
of taxation, of commerce and treaties, and other enumerated powers
vested in the government of the United States, are of high and
sovereign a character as any of the powers reserved to the State
governments."

Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Webster, Chancellor Kent, Judge Story, and nearly
all the old Republicans, and even the old Federalists, on the question
as to what is the actual constitution of the United States, took
substantially the same view; but they all, as well as Mr. Madison
himself, speak of the written constitution, which on their theory has
and can have only a conventional value. Mr. Madison evidently
recognizes no constitution of the people prior to the written
constitution, from whi