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To: 4ConservativeJustices
People of the states separately ratified. But not the people en masse, not one gigantic amalgamation ot the people in ONE convention. Not a consolidated democracy, but a republic of republics.

No. The people of the United States ratified it. Call it an amalgamation or lumpenproliteriat or whatever you want. The people spoke in the role as citizens of the United States. As John Marshall described it, "(The Constitution) was submitted to the people. They acted upon it in the only manner in which they can act safely, effectively, and wisely, on such a subject, by assembling in Convention. It is true, they assembled in their several States—and where else should they have assembled? No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass. Of consequence, when they act, they act in their States. But the measures they adopt do not, on that account, cease to be the measures of the people themselves, or become the measures of the State governments.” That's why it is government of, by, and for the people and not for the states.

431 posted on 04/21/2005 1:31:21 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
No. The people of the United States ratified it. Call it an amalgamation or lumpenproliteriat or whatever you want. The people spoke in the role as citizens of the United States.

When the 1st state ratified, the people of Delaware, and that state alone, ratified. They could not ratify for another state, thus, the "people of the United StateS" do not comprise the people of any other state. The people of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations were not members of the United StateS at that time. Each state ratified for itself and no other state.

But the measures they adopt do not, on that account, cease to be the measures of the people themselves, or become the measures of the State governments

Even if not all the people of the state aceded, they are still bound by the measures taken by the ratifying conventions - that's republican government. Note that the measures undertaken by the SOVEREIGNS of the state then becomes measures of the state governments. That's exactly what happened when the states seceded via conventions.

432 posted on 04/21/2005 2:05:30 PM PDT by 4CJ (Good-bye Henry LeeII. Rest well my FRiend. || Quoting Lincoln OR JimRob is a bannable offense.)
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