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CHAPTER VIII.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
I have hitherto considered each state as a separate whole, and
I have explained the different springs which the people sets in
motion, and the different means of action which it employs. But
all the states which I have considered as independent are forced to
submit, in certain cases, to the supreme authority of the Union.
The time is now come for me to examine the partial sovereignty
which has been conceded to the Union, and to cast a rapid glance
over the federal constitution.[1]
HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
Origin of the first Union.—Its Weakness.—Congress appeals to the constituent Authority.—Interval of two Years between the Appeal and the Promulgation of the new Constitution.
The thirteen colonies which simultaneously threw off the yoke of England toward the end of the last century, possessed, as I have already observed, the same religion, the same language, the same customs, and almost the same laws; they were struggling against a common enemy; and these reasons were sufficiently strong to unite them one to another, and to consolidate them into one nation. But as each of them had enjoyed a separate existence, and a government within its own control, the peculiar interests and customs which resulted from this system, were opposed to a compact and intimate union, which would have absorbed the individual
- ↑ See the constitution of the United States.
