, as an organized political community, which is sovereign,
without any other than self-imposed limitations, and such as proceed
from the general principles of the personal rights of man.

It has been said, in a foregoing chapter, that the authors of the
Constitution could scarcely have anticipated the idea of such a
community as the people of the United States in one mass. Perhaps this
expression needs some little qualification, for there is rarely a
fallacy, however stupendous, that is wholly original. A careful
examination of the records of the Convention of 1787 exhibits one or
perhaps two instances of such a suggestion--both by the same person--and
the result in each case is strikingly significant.

The original proposition made concerning the office of President of the
United States contemplated his election by the Congress, or, as it was
termed by the proposer, "the national Legislature." On the 17th of July,
this proposition being under consideration, Mr. Gouverneur Morris moved
that the words "national Legislature" be stricken out, and "citizens of
the United States" inserted. The proposition was supported by Mr. James
Wilson--both of these gentlemen being delegates from Pennsylvania, and
both among the most earnest advocates of centralism in the Convention.

Now, it is not at all certain that Mr. Morris had in view an election by
the citizens of the United States "in the aggregate," voting as _one
people_. The language of his proposition is entirely consistent with the
idea of as election by the citizens of each State, voting separately and
independently, though it is ambiguous, and may admit of the other
construction. But this is immaterial. The proposition was submitted to a
vote, and received the approval of only _one State_--Pennsylvania, of
which Mr. Morris and Mr. Wilson were both representatives. _Nine_ States
voted against it.[80]

Six days afterward (July 23d), in a discussion of the proposed
ratification of the Constitution by Conventions of the people of each
State, Mr. Gouverneur Morris--as we learn from Mr. Madison--"moved that
the reference of the plan [i.e., of the proposed Constitution] be made
to one General Convention, chosen and authorized by the people, to
consider, amend, and establish the same."[81]

Here the issue seems to have been more distinctly made between the two
ideas of people of the States and one people in the aggregate. The fate
of the latter is briefly recorded in the two