The unwritten constitution
is the creation or constitution of the sovereign, and the
sovereign providentially constituted constitutes in turn the
government, which is not sovereign, but is clothed with just so
much and just so little authority as the sovereign wills or
ordains.
The sovereign in the republican order is the organic people, or
State, and is with us the United States, for with us the organic
people exist only as organized into States united, which in their
union form one compact and indissoluble whole. That is to say,
the organic American people do not exist as a consolidated people
or state; they exist only as organized into distinct but
inseparable States. Each State is a living member of the one
body, and derives its life from its union with the body, so that
the American state is one body with many members; and the
members, instead of being simply individuals, are States, or
individuals organized into States. The body consists of many
members, and is one body, because the members are all members of
it, and members one of another. It does not exist as separate
or distinct from the members, but exists in their solidarity or
membership one of another. There is no sovereign people or
existence of the United States distinguishable from the people
or existence of the particular States united. The people of the
United States, the state called the United States, are the
people of the particular States united.
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