The Constitution of the United States was formed by a convention of delegates from the several States, who met in Philadelphia, duly authorized for the purpose, and it was ratified by a convention in each State which was especially called to consider and decide on the same.  In this progress the State governments were never suspended in their functions.  On the contrary, they took the lead in it.  Conscious of their incompetency to secure to the Union the blessings of the Revolution, they promoted the diminution of their own powers and the enlargement of those of the General Government in the way in which they might be most adequate and efficient.  It is believed that no other example can be found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its own powers, of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so pure and disinterested.  The credit, however, is more especially due to the people of each State, in obedience to whose will and under whose control the State governments acted.

The Constitution of the United States, being ratified by the people of the several States, became of necessity to the extent of its powers the paramount authority of the Union.  On sound principles it can be viewed in no other light.  The people, the highest authority known to our system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend, formed it.  Had the people of the several States thought proper to incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they might have done it.  They had the power, and there was nothing then nor is there anything now, should they be so disposed, to prevent it.  They wisely stopped, however, at a certain point, extending the incorporation to that point, making the National Government thus far a consolidated Government, and preserving the State governments without that limit perfectly sovereign and independent of the National Government.  Had the people of the several States incorporated themselves into one community, they must have remained such, their Constitution becoming then, like the constitution of the several States, incapable of change until altered by the will of the majority.  In the institution of a State government by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to which all and every citizen are equal parties.  They are also the sole parties and may amend it at pleasure.  In the institution of the Government of the United States by the citizens of every State a compact was formed between the whole American people which has the same force and partakes of all the qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact between the citizens of a State in the formation of their own constitution.  It can not be altered except by those who formed it or in the mode prescribed by the parties to the compact itself.