That the sovereignty vested in the States united, and was
represented in some sort by the Congress, is evident from the
fact that the several States, when they wished to adopt State
constitutions in place of colonial charters, felt not at liberty
to do so without asking and obtaining the permission of Congress,
as the elder Adams informs us in his Diary, kept at the time;
that is, they asked and obtained the equivalent of what has
since, in the case of organizing new States, been called an
"enabling act." This proves that the States did not regard
themselves as sovereign States out of the Union, but as
completely sovereign only in it. And this again proves that the
Articles of Confederation did not correspond to the real, living
constitution of the people. Even then it was felt that the
organization and constitution of a State in the Union could be
regularly effected only by the permission of Congress; and no
Territory can, it is well known, regularly organize itself as a
State, and adopt a State constitution, without an enabling act by
Congress, or its equivalent.
New States, indeed, have been organized and been admitted into
the Union without an enabling act of Congress; but the case of
Kansas, if nothing else, proves that the proceeding is irregular,
illicit, invalid, and dangerous. Congress, of course, can
condone the wrong and validate the act, but it were better that
the act should be validly done, and that there should be no wrong
to condone.
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