Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/321

 CH. III.] states, and ratified by the people thereof respectively; whereby the several stales, and the people thereof, respectively have bound themselves to each other, and to the federal government of the United States, and by which the federal government is bound to the several states and to every citizen of the United States. The author proceeds to expound every part of this definition at large. It is (says he) a compact, by which it is distinguished from a charter or grant, which is either the act of a superior to an inferior, or is founded upon some consideration moving from one of the parties to the other, and operates as an exchange or sale. But here the contracting parties, whether considered as states in their political capacity and character, or as individuals, are all equal; nor is there any thing granted from one to another; but each stipulates to part with, and receive the same thing precisely without any distinction or difference between any of the parties.

§ 311. It is a federal compact. Several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederation, without each ceasing to be a perfect state. They will together form a federal republic. The deliberations in common will offer no

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