could not be dissolved by consent, unless with the consent of every individual who was party to the original agreement; that in forming our original federal government, every member of that government, that is, each State, expressly consented to it; that it is a part of the compact made and entered into, in the most solemn manner, that there should be no dissolution or alteration of that federal government, without the consent of every State, the members of, and parties to, the original compact; that, therefore, no alteration could be made by a consent of a part of these States, or by the consent of the inhabitants of a part of the States, which could either release the States so consenting from the obligation they are under to the other States, or which could in any manner become obligatory upon those States that should not ratify such alterations. Satisfied of the truth of these positions, and not holding ourselves at liberty to violate the compact, which this State had solemnly entered into with the others, by altering it in a different manner from that which by the same compact is provided and stipulated, a number of the members, and among those the delegation of this State, opposed the ratification of this system in any other manner, than by the unanimous consent and agreement of all the States.
[103] By our original articles of confederation, any alterations proposed are, in the first place, to be approved by Congress. Accordingly, as the resolutions were originally adopted by the convention, and as they were reported by the committee of detail, it was proposed that this system should be laid before Congress for their approbation. But, Sir, the warm advocates of this system, fearing it would not meet with the approbation of Congress, and determined, even though Congress and the respective State legislatures should disapprove the same, to force it upon them, if possible, through the intervention of the people at large, moved to strike out the words “for their approbation,” and succeeded in their motion; to which, it being directly in violation of the mode prescribed by the articles of confederation for the alteration of our federal government, a part of the convention, and myself in the number, thought it a duty to give a decided negative.
[104] Agreeably to the articles of confederation, entered into in the most solemn manner, and for the observance of which the States pledged themselves to each other, and called upon the Supreme Being as a witness and avenger between them, no alterations are to be made in those articles, unless, after they are approved by Congress, they are agreed to and ratified by the legislature of every State; but, by the resolve of the convention, this constitution is not to be ratified by the legislatures of the respective States, but is to be submitted
