Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/167

 admissions, it is not more strange than the reasons assigned for it. The first, and leading one — that on which it mainly relies — is drawn from the source whence, as it alleges, the powers of the government are derived. It states, that the House of Representatives will derive its powers from the people of "America;" and adds, by way of confirmation, "The people will be represented in the same proportion, and on the same principle, as they are in the legislatures of each particular State" — and hence concludes that it would be national and not federal. Is the fact so? Does the House of Representatives really derive its powers from the people of America? — that is, from the people in the aggregate, as forming one nation; for such must be the meaning — to give the least force, or even plausibility, to the assertion. Is it not a fundamental principle, and universally admitted — admitted even by the authors themselves — that all the powers of the government are derived from the constitution — including those of the House of Representatives, as well as others? And does not this celebrated work admit — most explicitly, and in the fullest manner — that the constitution derives all its powers and authority from the people of the several States, acting, each for itself, in their independent and sovereign character as States? that they still retain the same character, and, as such, are parties to it? and that it is a federal, and not a national, constitution? How, then, can it assert, in the face of such admissions, that the House of Representatives derives its authority from the American people, in the aggregate,