Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/364

 324 in affording the people of the United States, in the course of his providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without force or surprise, of entering into an explicit and solemn compact with each other, by assenting to, and ratifying a new constitution, &c. do assent to, and ratify the said constitution." And although many declarations of rights, many propositions of amendments, and many protestations of reserved powers are to be found accompanying the ratifications of the various conventions, sufficiently evincive of the extreme caution and jealousy of those bodies, and of the people at large, it is remarkable, that there is nowhere to be found the slightest allusion to the instrument, as a confederation or compact of states in their sovereign capacity, and no reservation of any right, on the part of any state, to dissolve its connexion, or to abrogate its assent, or to suspend the operations of the constitution, as to itself. On the contrary, that of Virginia, which speaks most pointedly to the topic, merely declares, "that the powers granted under the constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them [not by any one of the states] whenever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression."

§ 357. So that there is very strong negative testimony against the notion of its being a compact or confederation, of the nature of which we have spoken, founded upon the known history of the times, and the acts of ratification, as well as upon the antecedent articles of confederation. The latter purported on their