n becoming then, like the
constitution of the several States, incapable of change until altered
by the will of the majority. In the institution of a State government
by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to which all and every
citizen are equal parties. They are also the sole parties and may amend
it at pleasure. In the institution of the Government of the United
States by the citizens of every State a compact was formed between the
whole American people which has the same force and partakes of all the
qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact between the citizens
of a State in the formation of their own constitution. It can not be
altered except by those who formed it or in the mode prescribed by the
parties to the compact itself.

This Constitution was adopted for the purpose of remedying all
defects of the Confederation, and in this it has succeeded beyond
any calculation that could have been formed of any human institution.
By binding the States together the Constitution performs the great
office of the Confederation; but it is in that sense only that it has
any of the properties of that compact, and in that it is more effectual
to the purpose, as it holds them together by a much stronger bond; and
in all other respects in which the Confederation failed the Constitution
has been blessed with complete success. The Confederation was a compact
between separate and independent States, the execution of whose
articles in the powers which operated internally depended on the State
governments. But the great office of the Constitution, by incorporating
the people of the several States to the extent of its powers into one
community and enabling it to act directly on the people, was to annul
the powers of the State governments to that extent, except in cases
where they were concurrent, and to preclude their agency in giving
effect to those of the General Government. The Government of the United
States relies on its own means for the execution of its powers, as the
State governments do for the execution of theirs, both governments
having a common origin or sovereign, the people--the State governments
the people of each State, the National Government the people of every
State--and being amenable to the power which created it. It is by
executing its functions as a Government thus originating and thus acting
that the Constitution of the United States holds the States together and
performs the office of a league.