§ 463. We have already had occasion, in considering the nature of the constitution, to dwell upon the terms, in which the preamble is conceived, and the proper conclusion deducible from it. It is an act of the people, and not of the states in their political capacities.[1] It is an ordinance or establishment of government and not a compact, though originating in consent; and it binds as a fundamental law promulgated by the sovereign authority, and not as a compact or treaty entered into and in fieri, between each and all the citizens of the United States, as distinct parties. The language is, "We, the people of the United States," not, We, the states, "do ordain and establish;" not, do contract and enter into a treaty with each other; "this constitution for the United States of America," not this treaty between the several states. And it is, therefore, an unwarrantable assumption, not to call it a most extravagant stretch of interpretation, wholly at variance with the language, to substitute other words and other senses for the words and senses incorporated, in this solemn manner, into the substance of the instrument itself. We have the strongest assurances, that this preamble was not adopted as a mere formulary; but as a solemn promulgation of a fundamental fact, vital to the character and operations of the government. The obvious object was to substitute a government of the people, for a confederacy of states; a constitution for a compact.[2]
The difficulties arising from this source- ↑ See 2 Lloyd's Debates, 1789, p. 178, 180, 181.
- ↑ By a constitution, is to be understood (says Mr. Justice Wilson) a supreme law, made and ratified by those, in whom the sovereign power of the state resides, which prescribes the manner, in which that sovereign power wills that the government should be instituted and administered.[a 1]
It contributed not a little to the infirmities of the articles of the confederation, that it never had a ratification by the people. The Federalist, 22.
- ↑ 1 Wilson's Lect. 417.
