s, in advance of its proper place in the
argument--the attention of the reader may be directed to the refutation,
afforded by this article of the Constitution, of that astonishing
fiction, which has been put forward by some distinguished writers of
later date, that the Constitution was established by the people of the
United States "in the aggregate." If such had been the case, the will of
a majority, duly ascertained and expressed, would have been binding upon
the minority. No such idea existed in its formation. It was not even
established by the _States in the aggregate_, nor was it proposed that
it should be. It was submitted for the acceptance of each separately,
the time and place at their own option, so that the dates of
ratification did extend from December 7, 1787, to May 29, 1790. The long
period required for these ratifications makes manifest the absurdity of
the assertion, that it was a decision by the votes of one people, or one
community, in which a majority of the votes cast determined the result.

We have seen that the delegates to the Convention of 1787 were chosen by
the several States, _as States_--it is hardly necessary to add that they
voted in the Convention, as in the Federal Congress, by States--each
State casting one vote. We have seen, also, that they were sent for the
"sole and express purpose" of revising the Articles of Confederation and
devising means for rendering the Federal Constitution, "adequate to the
exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union"; that the
terms "Union," "United States," "Federal Constitution;" and
"Constitution of the Federal Government," were applied to the old
Confederation in precisely the same sense in which they are used under
the new; that the proposition to constitute a "national" Government was
distinctly rejected by the Convention; that the right of any State, or
States, to withdraw from union with the others was practically
exemplified, and that the idea of coercion of a State, or compulsory
measures, was distinctly excluded under any construction that can be put
upon the action of the Convention.

To the original copy of the Constitution, as set forth by its framers
for the consideration and final action of the people of the States, was
attached the following words:

"Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States
present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-