"We cannot look back to the history of the times, when, (12 Wh. 354,) the general convention assembled, without the conviction that the framers of the constitution would naturally examine the state of things existing at the time; and their work sufficiently attests that they did so." 6 Wh. 416. By a reference to this work, and the practical effects of its operation to the present time, we can, I think, ascertain from whose hands it has come to us to be expounded, by its objects and intentions.

THE PRACTICAL EFFECT AND OPERATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

The apportionment of representation among the states, which was made by the constitution, was with a reference to the congress of the revolution, 1 Journ. 153, of the whole number 65; the six largest states had 43; the remaining 7, only 22; and the constitution could be adopted by nine states, having thirty-three representatives. When in 1789, the government was organized, there were only 11 states with 59 representatives: of which, 4 states had 32, and the other 7, only 27; yet they could elect a President, and had a majority of votes in the Senate: so that a minority of the people of the United States, had the operative power of two branches of the government; and could make the third, in which the majority was represented, either subservient to their will, or incapable of acting in opposition to it.

The president and sixteen senators, representing eight states, and a population entitled only to twenty-five representatives, could exercise the treaty-making power; and the President and twelve Senators, from states entitled only to nineteen representatives, could appoint all the executive, military, and judicial officers of the government; overruling five states entitled to thirty-nine representatives: whereby all offices could be filled, and treaties made the supreme law of the land, in defiance of the will of a majority of the people, and their representatives, estimating the population of 1789 by that of 1790.

Under the first census of 1790, the free white population of the thirteen states, was 3,100,000: of which, Massachusetts had 469,000; New York 314,000; Pennsylvania 424,000; and Virginia (and Kentucky) 503,000; making 1,710,000; leaving 1,390,000 to the other nine states. These four states had 56 members in the House of Representatives, the other states 47; they had 8 votes in the Senate, the other states 18; they had 64 votes for President, the other states 65. Nine states, with a white population of 1,390,000, could dissolve the old confederation, establish the new constitution, and throw out of the union, four states, containing 1,700,000, or could control them if they became parties to it.

Was this a government of a majority of the people of the United States, as one people? Did the one people "ordain and establish❞ this "Constitution for the United States of America?"

At the census of 1800, there were 16 states: the whole white population of which was 4,247,000; these 4 states, exclusive of Kcn

tucky, (taken from Virginia) contained 2,226,000, the other 12 contained 2,021,000; these 4 states had 74 votes in the House, 8 in the Senate, and 82 for President; the other 12 states had 67 votes in the House, 24 in the Senate, and 91 for President; the minority, in effect, controlling every branch of the government, and competent to amend the constitution. What became then of the government of the majority of the free white population, composing the people of the United States?

At the census of 1810, there were 17 states, with a white population of 5,765,000: of which, these states contained 2,948,000, the other 13 contained 2,717,000; these 4 states had 93 votes in the House, 8 in the Senate, and 101 for President; the other 13 states had 88 votes in the House, 26 in the Senate, and 114 for President, the minority of the people still controlling.

At the census of 1820, there were 24 states, the white population 7,856,000; the 4 states, with Maine (taken from Massachusetts) and Kentucky, contained 4,199,000; the other 18 contained 3,657,000; the 6 states having 114 votes in the House, 12 in the Senate, and 126 for President; the other 18 states had 99 votes in the House, 36 in the Senate, and 135 for President-the minority still ascendant.

In 1830, the entire white population was 10,846,000, of which, these 6 states contained 5,535,000; the other 18 states, including the territories, 5,311,000; the 6 states have 124 votes in the House, 12 in the Senate, and 136 for President; the other 18 states, have 117 votes in the House, 36 in the Senate, and 153 for President.

It thus appears, that from the year 1790, till this time, the four states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, have contained within their original boundaries, a majority of the whole people of the United States: yet such is the structure of the government, that there is no one act which could be effected by such majority.

Adding to the free white population of these states, according to the last census, and their present boundaries, that of Ohio and Tennessee, the 6 states contain 6,090,000; the other 18 states 4,646,000, leaving a majority in the 6 states of 1,444,000; which may be found to be perfectly passive for all purposes, except representation, in the House of Representatives. There are 9 states, which contain in all, only 1,345,000 free inhabitants, which can defeat a treaty, impeachment, proposition to amend the constitution, or the passage of a law, without the approbation of the President, against the will of fifteen states, containing a majority of 8,146,000 of the people of the United States, in the aggregate. Thirteen states, with a population of 2,504,300, can elect a President in the last resort, in opposition to eleven states, with 8,232,000. Congress is bound to call a convention to amend the constitution, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of states, whose population is only 3,546,000, less than one-third of the aggregate of all the states: and amendments may be adopted by eighteen states, in opposition to an aggregate majority of 1,444,000; one of which amendments might give the smallest state,

an equality of suffrage in the House of Representatives, and in voting for a President by electors. Seven states, with a white population of only 812,000, may defeat any constitutional amendment; though it might be called for by the residue of the people of the Union, amounting to 9,924,000: so that a minority may force on a majority a new government; and less than one-thirteenth of the people of the United States in the aggregate, may continue the present without any change whatever, though the reasons which call for an alteration, may be most imperative for the good of the whole. There are but two means of changing these results from the present organization of the government, one is the division of the large, or the junction of small states into new ones; and the other, by giving them a representation in the senate, in proportion to their numbers. But the constitution has placed both beyond the power of any majority of the people, however preponderating; unless by a majority of the states in the one, and by all in the second case.

"New states may be admitted by the congress into this Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected, within the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states or parts of states, without the consent of the legislature of the states concerned, as well as of the congress." 4 art. sec. 3, clause 1.

The senators of any thirteen states can prevent the admission of any new states, or the junction of old ones; this can be remedied only by an amendment, which seven states can prevent.

The fifth article, providing for amending the constitution, contains this proviso: "and that no state without its consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate." Thus the irrevocable, irrepealable supreme law of the land, has made Delaware, with an aggregate population of 77,000, the peer of New York in the senate, with her 2,000,000: and she may hold her rights in defiance of the constitutional power of twenty-three states, with an aggregate population of 12,789,000; equal to 166 to 1; in federal numbers, 165 to 1; and in free population, 147 to 1.

How contemptible are mere numbers, or majorities of the people, in comparison with the rights of states, by the standard of the constitution!!

The basis of representation, composed of people and property, mixed into the constituent body of federal members, leads irresistibly to the character of the government. The inevitable effect of making five slaves equal to three freemen, is, to take power from a majority of the people: so long as this apportionment of representation among the states continues; a minority of the people of the United States in the aggregate, may elect a majority of the members of the House of Representatives; and the conventions or legislatures of seven of the slave-holding states, can perpetuate this state of things.

The general result of the last census, including the District of Columbia and the territories, is: aggregate population, 12,856,000; slaves, 2,010,000; federal numbers, 12,052,000; free people, 10,846,000;

slaves represented, 1,206,000: thus, the representation of the states in which they are owned, is increased by the addition of twenty-seven members; is a representation of an actual minority of the free people; and though the minority, they may control even this branch of the government, by a majority equal to the slave representation.

These results are not the effect of accident; they must have been foreseen at the adoption of the constitution: unless it was anticipated that the population of the states would be in an inverse ratio to their territory.

In 1788, the whole territory of the thirteen states contained about 500,000 square miles; of which there was comprehended in the boundaries of Virginia and Kentucky, then one state, 103,000; in North Carolina, including Tennessee, 84,000; and in Georgia, including Mississippi and Alabama, 153,000: in the aggregate, 340,000. The other ten states, included only 167,000, adding the territory ceded by Virginia and New York, now composing the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, containing 134,000; all that was in possession of the confederacy or the states, was 640,000 square miles; of which, three states had more than one-half, while three others had no more than one-eighth part; two of which had only the one hundred and ninety-third, and one only the four hundreth part.

Yet this enormous disparity of territory has no more effect on the equality of a state with any other now, nor hereafter can have without its consent, than the disparity of population. Rhode Island, with 1,360 square miles of territory, is the peer of Virginia, with 64,000. Delaware is the equal of New York, though their population is most enormously disproportionate. The rights of these states are emphatically the rights of a minority of the people; and a government which can be organized, administered, and reorganized, by a minority, whose power is expressly guarantied against any majority of states or people, cannot be any other than a "federal government of these states."

There can be no political absurdity more palpable, than that which results from the theory that the people of the United States, as one people, have instituted a government of the people; a majority (of the people) government; or one which can be altered by the majority: for that majority has no one right, can do no one act under the constitution, or prevent such amendments as would expunge every semblance of a popular feature from it, by reducing New York to an equality with Delaware, in the House of Representatives, and in voting for President; these being the only particulars in which the people of the largest have any more right than those of the smallest states. Nor is there a political truth more apparent from the bills of rights in the constitutions of the several states; their unanimous declaration in congress, in October 1774, and July 1776; their alliance with France in 1778; with each other in 1781; and the supreme law of 1788, established by the people of each, between themselves, as each sovereign; than that the government which they have brought into existence, is a creature of the people of the several states, a

government of a majority of the states; which may be in all its departments, and whole action, administered by the representatives of the minority of the people of the United States; and changed in its whole organization and distribution of powers, by such minority, in all respects save one; and that one is the provision which makes the right and power of the minority irresistible, by the equal suffrage in the Senate, forever secured to each state.

The thirteenth article of the confederacy contained a similar provision: the assent of each state was necessary to any alteration.

The principle, that a majority of states, of the people of the United States, or of either, in any unity of political character, could, in any stage of our history, alter, abolish the old, or institute a new government, is utterly without any sanction in the acts of the states or congress. States were units, who could impart or withdraw power at their pleasure, until they made an express delegation to congress by the league of 1781; each state had its option to become a party to the compact, constitution or grant, made in 1788, by nine states, or to remain a free, sovereign, independent state, nation or power, foreign to the new Union, after the old was dissolved.

By becoming separate parties, they did not divest themselves of their individual unity of character; they remain units as to representation, and as units, reserve all powers not delegated or prohibited: and the ultimate power of revoking all parts but one of the grant, with the concurrence of three-fourths of their associates, and modifying it at their pleasure.

This is the essence of supreme and sovereign power, which testifies that the ultimate absolute sovereignty, is in "the several states," and the people thereof; who can do by inherent right and power, any thing in relation to the constitution, or change of government, except depriving the smallest state of its equal suffrage in the senate: not in the United States, or the people thereof, as one nation, or one people, who in their unity of character or power, can do nothing either by inherent right, or by representation, as a majority.

The power which can rightfully exercise acts of supreme absolute sovereignty, is the sovereign power of a state; no body or power, which can neither move or act, can be sovereign: it exists constitutionally, but as matter incapable of either. The soil of the United States, is as much the source of political power, as its aggregate population. Until the power which can establish government is brought into action, and designates the one or the other as the basis of representation or taxation, each is a perfect dead body; and both are perfectly so by the constitution, in reference to the United States in the aggregate, or as one nation. But in reference to the states, both the land and the population, within their separate boundaries, are brought into operation; its federal numbers are made the stock from which representation arises, and become represented by the action of the qualified electors of the state; and the land in the state is assessed with taxation, by the same rates as its representation is apportioned;