Sovereign states may unite in an alliance, league, or
confederation, and mutually agree to exercise their sovereign
powers or a portion of them in common, through a common organ or
agency; but in this agreement they part with none of their
sovereignty, and each remains a sovereign state or nation as
before. The common organ or agency created by the convention is
no state, is no nation, has no inherent sovereignty, and derives
all its vitality and force from the persisting sovereignty of the
states severally that have united in creating it. The agreement
no more affects the sovereignty of the several states entering
into it, than does the appointment of an agent affect the rights
and powers of the principal. The creature takes nothing from the
Creator, exhausts not, lessens not his creative energy, and it is
only by his retaining and continuously exerting his creative
power that the creature continues to exist.
An independent state or nation may, with or without its consent,
lose its sovereignty, but only by being merged in or subjected to
another. Independent sovereign states cannot by convention, or
mutual agreement, form themselves into a single sovereign state,
or nation. The compact, or agreement, is made by sovereign
states, and binds by virtue of the sovereign power of each of the
contracting parties. To destroy that sovereign power would be to
annul the compact, and render void the agreement.
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