Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/368

 328 has been sustained by opinions of some of our most eminent statesmen and judges. It was truly remarked by the Federalist, that the constitution was the result neither from the decision of a majority of the people of the union, nor from that of a majority of the states. It resulted from the unanimous assent of the several states that are parties to it, differing no otherwise from their ordinary assent, than its being expressed, not by the legislative authority but by that of the people themselves.

§ 361. But if the constitution could in the sense, to to which we have alluded, be deemed a compact, between whom is it to be deemed a contract? We have already seen, that the learned commentator on Blackstone, deems it a compact with several aspects, and first between the states, (as contradistinguished from the people of the states) by which the several states have bound themselves to each other, and to the