Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/335

 CH. III.] as the cement of civil society. And this is what we mean by the original contract of society; which, though perhaps in no instance it has ever been formally expressed at the first institution of a state, yet, in nature and reason, must always be understood, and implied in the very act of associating together; namely, that the whole should protect all its parts, and that every part should pay obedience to the will of the whole; or, in other words, that the community should guard the rights of each individual member; and that in return for this protection each individual should submit to the laws of the community." It is in this sense, that the preamble of the constitution of Massachusetts asserts, that "the body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals; that it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good;" and that in the same preamble, the people acknowledge with grateful hearts, that Providence had afforded them an opportunity "of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other, and of forming a new constitution of civil government for themselves and their posterity." It is in this sense too, that Mr. Chief Justice Jay is to be understood, when he asserts, that "every state constitution is a compact made by and between the citizens of a state to govern themselves in a certain manner; and the constitution of the United States is, likewise, a compact