Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/325

 CH. III.]

§ 316. It is a compact freely, voluntarily, and solemnly entered into by the several states, and ratified by the people thereof respectively; freely, there being neither external nor internal force or violence to influence, or promote the measure; the United States being at peace with all the world and in perfect tranquillity in each state; voluntarily, because the measure had its commencement in the spontaneous acts of the state legislatures, prompted by a clue sense of the necessity of some change in the existing confederation; and solemnly, as having been discussed, not only in the general convention, which proposed and framed it; but afterwards in the legislatures of the several states; and finally in the conventions of all the states, by whom it was adopted and ratified.

§ 317. It is a compact, by which the several states and the people thereof respectively have bound themselves to each other, and to the federal government. The constitution had its commencement with the body politic of the several states; and its final adoption and ratification was by the several legislatures referred to, and completed by conventions especially, called and appointed for that purpose in each state. The acceptance of the constitution was not only an act of the body politic of each state, but of the people thereof respectively in their sovereign character and capacity. The body politic was competent to bind itself, so far as the constitution of the stare permitted. But not having power to bind the people in cases beyond their constitutional authority, the assent of the people was indispensably necessary to the validity of the compact,