It is Providential, not made by the
nation, but born with it. The written constitution is made and
ordained by the sovereign power, and presupposes that power as
already existing and constituted.
The unwritten or Providential constitution of the United States
is peculiar, and difficult to understand, because incapable of
being fully explained by analogies borrowed from any other state
historically known, or described by political philosophers. It
belongs to the Graeco-Roman family, and is republican as
distinguished from despotic constitutions, but it comes under the
head of neither monarchical nor aristocratic, neither democratic
nor mixed constitutions, and creates a state which is neither a
centralized state nor a confederacy. The difficulty of
understanding it is augmented by the peculiar use under it of the
word state, which does not in the American system mean a
sovereign community or political society complete in itself, like
France, Spain, or Prussia, nor yet a political society
subordinate to another political society and dependent on it.
The American States are all sovereign States united, but,
disunited, are no States at all. The rights and powers of the
States are not derived from the United States, nor the rights and
powers of the United States derived from the States.
The simple fact is, that the political or sovereign people of the
United States exists as united States, and only as united States.
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