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There was no "one people" when it came to the United States.

As Madison later wrote in the letter in my first post:

It is fortunate when disputed theories, can be decided by undisputed facts. And here the undisputed fact is, that the Constitution was made by the people, but as imbodied into the several states, who were parties to it and therefore made by the States in their highest authoritative capacity. They might, by the same authority & by the same process have converted the Confederacy into a mere league or treaty; or continued it with enlarged or abridged powers; or have imbodied the people of their respective States into one people, nation or sovereignty; or as they did by a mixed form make them one people, nation, or sovereignty, for certain purposes, and not so for others.

Also, the 10th amendment says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 10th amendment clearly separates the United States, the several States, and the People as distinctly separate entities.

-PJ

As Madison later wrote in the letter in my first post: It is fortunate when disputed theories, can be decided by undisputed facts. And here the undisputed fact is, that the Constitution was made by the people, but as imbodied into the several states, who were parties to it and therefore made by the States in their highest authoritative capacity. They might, by the same authority & by the same process have converted the Confederacy into a mere league or treaty; or continued it with enlarged or abridged powers; or have imbodied the people of their respective States into one people, nation or sovereignty; or as they did by a mixed form make them one people, nation, or sovereignty, for certain purposes, and not so for others.

Madison's views after ratification of the constitution are just one man's opinions. Madison's views express before ratification are evidence as to what the states were actually agreeing to. As with all contracts, its about what the parties to the contract (ie the states) agreed to at the time.

Also, the 10th amendment says: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. The 10th amendment clearly separates the United States, the several States, and the People as distinctly separate entities.

To the states respectively, or to the people. The constitution does not spell out how the people would exercise any right or power except through their sovereign states. I'd refer you back to the Federalist #39

[the Constitution would be ratified by the people]"not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct independent States to which they respectively belong.."