Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/347

 CH. III.]. In general the import is, that the people "ordain and establish," that is, in (heir sovereign capacity, meet and declare, what shall he the fundamental Law for the government of themselves and their posterity. Even in the constitution of Massachusetts, which, more than any other, wears the air of contract, the compact is declared to be a "mere constitution of civil government," and the people "do agree on, ordain, and establish the following declaration of rights, and frame of government, as the constitution of government." In this very bill of rights, the people are declared "to have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign, and independent state"; and that "they have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government, and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it." It is, and accordingly has always been, treated as a fundamental law, and not as a mere contract of government, during the good pleasure of all the persons, who were originally bound by it, or assented to it.

§ 339. A constitution is in fact a fundamental law or basis of government, and falls strictly within the definition of law, as given by Mr. Justice Blackstone. It is a