vernment within the States, as the General government, in union with
all the particular governments, constitutes the complete and supreme
government of the nation or whole country. This is clearly the view
taken by Mr. Madison in his letter to Mr. Everett, when freed from his
theory of the origin of government in compact.

The constitution of the people as one people, and the distinction at
the same time of this one people into particular States, precedes the
convention, and is the unwritten constitution, the Providential
constitution, of the American people or civil society, as distinguished
from the constitution of the government, which, whether general or
particular, is the ordination of civil society itself. The unwritten
constitution is the creation or constitution of the sovereign, and the
sovereign providentially constituted constitutes in turn the
government, which is not sovereign, but is clothed with just so much
and just so little authority as the sovereign wills or ordains.

The sovereign in the republican order is the organic people, or State,
and is with us the United States, for with us the organic people exist
only as organized into States united, which in their union form one
compact and indissoluble whole. That is to say, the organic American
people do not exist as a consolidated people or state; they exist only
as organized into distinct but inseparable States. Each State is a
living member of the one body, and derives its life from its union with
the body, so that the American state is one body with many members; and
the members, instead of being simply individuals, are States, or
individuals organized into States. The body consists of many members,
and is one body, because the members are all members of it, and members
one of another. It does not exist as separate or distinct from the
members, but exists in their solidarity or membership one of another.
There is no sovereign people or existence of the United States
distinguishable from the people or existence of the particular States
united. The people of the United States, the state called the United
States, are the people of the particular States united. The solidarity
of the members constitutes the unity of the body. The difference
between this view and Mr. Madison's is, that while his view supposes
the solidarity to be conventional, originating and existing in compact,
or agreement, this supposes it to be real, living, and prior to the