Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/27

Rh. The latter are a mere question of fact, and as such their construction must depend on their intention as explained in language.

The term "people," like most other substantives, has its general and its specific significations. In its general signification, the people of a country, means the population of a country; as the population of a country includes the women and children, nothing can be clearer than that the "people," in this signification, did not form the American constitution. The specific significations of this word are numerous, as rich, poor, wise, silly, good and bad people. In a political sense, the people means those who are vested with political rights, and, in this particular instance, the people vested with political rights, were the constituencies of the several states, under their various laws, modifications and constitutions, which is but another name for the governments of the states themselves. "We the people," as used in the preamble of the constitution, means merely, "We the constituencies of the several states."

It follows, that the constitution of the United States was formed by the states, and not by the people of the entire country, as contended; the term used in the preamble being used in contra-distinction to the old divine right of sovereigns, and as a mode of expressing the general republican character of the government. The states, by a prescribed majority, can also amend the constitution, altering any of its provisions, with the exception of that which guaranties the equal representation of the states in the senate. It might be shown, that states possessing a minority of all the people of the Union can alter the constitution, a fact, in itself, which proves that the government of the United States, though a republick, is not necessarily a popular government, in the broadest