Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/56

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS maintaining, not only that this general govern- ment is the creature of the States, but that it is the creature of each of the States severally, so that each may assert the power for itself of de- termining whether it acts within the limits of its authority^ It is the servant of four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all. This absurdity (for it seems no less) arises from a miscon- ception as to the origin of this government and its true character, i It is, sir, the people 's Constitution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and ansvrerable to the people.'! The people of the United States have declared' that this Constitution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition or dispute their authority. The States are, unquestionably, sovereign, so far as their sovereignty is not affected by the supreme law. But the State Legislatures, as political bodies, however sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people^So far as the people have given power to the general government, so far the grant is unquestionably good, and the government holds of the people, and not of the State governments.) We are all agents of the same supreme power, the people. The general government and the State governments derive their authority from the same source. Neither can, in relation to the other, be called primary, tho one is definite and restricted, and the other general and residuary. The national gov- 46