United States,"[1] "claims of the United States,"[2] "the United States shall guarantee,"[3] "shall be valid against the United States,"[4] "under the authority of the United States,"[5] "court of the United States,"[6] "delegated to the United States,"[7] "public debt of the United States,"[8] "insurrection or rebellion against the United States"[9] "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States,"[10] "neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay,"[11] the term "United States" is used in its second sense.[12] It seems also to be used in the same sense in the phrase, "citizen of the United States;"[13] for it is only as a unit, a body politic, and a sovereign, that the United States can have citizens,—not as the collective name of forty-five States. In the phrase, "common
- ↑ Art. 4, sect. 3, subsect. 2.
- ↑ Art. 4, sect. 3, subsect. 2.
- ↑ Art. 3, sect. 4.
- ↑ Art. 6, subsect. 1.
- ↑ Art. 6, subsect. 2.
- ↑ 7th Amendment.
- ↑ 10th Amendment.
- ↑ 14th Amendment, sect. 4.
- ↑ 14th Amendment, sect. 4.
- ↑ 15th Amendment.
- ↑ 14th Amendment, sect. 4.
- ↑ As the second sense in which the term "United States" is used in the Constitution had no existence prior to the time of the adoption of the Constitution, it follows that, whenever the Articles of Confederation use the term in such phrases as any of those enumerated above or in similar phrases, they use it (as they do in all cases) in its original sense. Instances will be found in Art. 4 ["no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property of the United States or either of them"], Art. 5 ["nor shall any delegate hold any office under the United States," etc.], Art. 6 ["nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States or any of them accept of any present," etc.], Art. 9 ["no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States;" "nor ascertain the sums and expenditures necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States or any of them;" "in the service of the United States;" "Congress of the United States;" "on the credit of the United States;" "at the expense of the United States"], Art. 11 ["Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of, this Union"], Art. 12 ["shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged"], and Art. 13 ["Congress of the United States"].
In most cases, however, in which the term "United States," in its second sense, or the term "Congress" or "Congress of the United States," would be used in the Constitution, the phrase "United States in Congress assembled" is used in the Articles of Confederation. That phrase occurs in those articles a great number of times, and, whenever it occurs, "United States" is used in its original sense. This is clearly brought out by the following words in Art. 5: "Each State shall maintain its own delegates in any meeting of the States;" also by the following words in Art. 10: "the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled;" and also by the following words in Art. 12: "before the assembling of the United States [not the delegates of the United States] in pursuance of the present confederation." - ↑ Art. 1, sect. 2, subsect. 2; Art. 1, sect. 3, subsect. 3; Art. 2, sect, 1, subsect. 5; 14th Amendment, sects, 1 and 2; 15th Amendment, sect. 1.
