State. Thus at every election it is a majority of States rather than a majority of voters which decides the victory. This is so distinctly the fact, that Presidents have been actually elected (when there were more than two candidates) who might not possess anything approaching to an absolute majority of the popular vote; and some were positively elected when it was clearly proved that they had a minority of the popular vote, as against their sole and defeated competitor. Here we find ourselves confronted by a peculiar conception of sovereignty and of political rights. In the sphere of the Federal Constitution there are no political rights (droits politiques actifs) belonging to the citizens as such, there is only the right to representation divided among corporate bodies, i.e. the States.[1] This is as it is in England, but for different reasons. In the same sphere the formula of sovereignty is a mixed one; the supreme power does not belong solely to the numerical majority of individuals, it belongs also, and in greater part, to the numerical majority of thirty-eight powerful corporate bodies. The States, and not the individual citizens, are the real members of the state, the integrant parts and organic elements, as it were, of the body politic.
- ↑ [The House of Representatives, however, does represent the people. (D.)]
