That's the singular/plural business about the word "people" again, which the Founders always constructed and used as a plural, and for which they didn't use a superplural form the way we do when we say "peoples". The German word for "people" is "Leute", and "die Leute" is always plural. But "populus" was always singular in Latin.
And anyway, I disagree. There are the people of the United States, of which I am one.
Well, we've been all over the amalgamation issue on these threads, discussing passages from The Federalist and the ratification debates, the outcome of all of which was, and still is, that the People means the People of a State, and that we always but always consult each People in each State for the big decisions like amending the Constitution or sending electors to DC to elect national officers.
And that loyalty is above any local or regional affection. At least that's what George Washington said. But hey, what did he know?
Well, he didn't know about John Brown, did he? Trying to start a race war is bad enough, but it was the Northern editorial and popular response to his attempt to reproduce a Haitian revolution in America that really tore the knickers. They were sorry Brown failed, and they wept big wet tears when he was executed. Where do you think George Washington would have been on that issue if he'd been still around in 1859?
"I would be pleased if you and your family and neighbors died horribly under a machete" kinda puts finis to the old bond of loyalty, don't you think?
The country had exceeded its supply of tolerances. It was time to go.
On the side of the Union.