Mr. Madison evidently recognizes no constitution of the people
prior to the written constitution, from which the written
constitution, or the constitution of the government, derives all
its force and vitality. The organization of the American people,
which he knew well--no man better,--and which he so justly
characterizes, he supposes to have been deliberately formed by
the people themselves, through the convention--not given them by
Providence as their original and inherent constitution. But this
was merely the effect of the general doctrine which he had
adopted, in common with nearly all his contemporaries, of the
origin of the state in compact, and may be eliminated from his
view of what the constitution actually is, without affecting that
view itself.
Mr. Madison lays great stress on the fact that though the
constitution of the Union was formed by the States, it was
formed, not by the governments, but by the people of the several
States; but this makes no essential difference, if the people are
the people of the States, and sovereign in their severalty, and
not in their union. Had it been formed by the State governments
with the acquiescence of the people, it would have rested on as
high authority as if formed by the people of the State in
convention assembled. The only difference is, that if the State
ratified it by the legislature, she could abrogate it by the
legislature; if in convention, she could abrogate it only in
convention.
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