part of the people, regarded in the aggregate as forming a nation; that it is throughout, in whole, and in every part, simply and purely federal — "the federal government of these States" — as is accurately and concisely expressed by General Washington, the organ of the convention, in his letter laying it before the old Congress — words carefully selected, and with a full and accurate knowledge of their import. There is, indeed, no such community, politically speaking, as the people of the United States, regarded in the light of, and as constituting one people or nation. There never has been any such, in any stage of their existence; and, of course, they neither could, nor ever can exercise any agency — or have any participation, in the formation of our system of government, or its administration. In all its parts — including the federal as well as the separate State governments, it emanated from the same source — the people of the several States. The whole, taken together, form a federal community — a community composed of States united by a political compact — and not a nation composed of individuals united by, what is called, a social compact.
I shall next proceed to show that it is federal, in contradistinction to a confederacy.
It differs and agrees, but in opposite respects, with a national government, and a confederacy. It differs from the former, inasmuch as it has, for its basis, a confederacy, and not a nation; and agrees with it in being a government: while it agrees with the latter, to the extent of having a confederacy for its basis, and differs from it, inasmuch as the
