"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." Chief Justice Marshall, McCullough v Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, (1819)
"[I]t was neither necessary nor proper to define the powers retained by the States. These powers proceed, not from the people of America, but from the people of the several States; and remain, after the adoption of the constitution, what they were before, except so far as they may be abridged by that instrument."
Chief Justice Marshall, Sturges v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, 193 (1819).In this clause they are as clearly contradistinguished by a name appropriate to themselves from foreign nations as from the several states composing the Union.
Chief Justice Marshall, Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia, 30 US 1, (1831)"This is the authoritative language of the American people; and, if gentlemen please, of the American States."
Chief Justice Marshall, Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, (1821)
Walt, today there are 50 states, when the Constitution was ratified there were 13. The creation of the federal government did not abolish the states. The people of every state did not vote for the Constitition - their state politicians voted on it. We live in a Constitutional republic, not a democracy. It's a case of "We the people of these United States" creating the government. Article IV refers to states powers, not those of the people. The ratification had to be performed by the states, not by the people. Amending the Constitution is to be done by the states, not the people. Read the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Debates in the State Conventions and learn something useful. Unplug yourself from the Matrix.
The federal government is always supreme; ever hear of the supremacy clause?
"These states are constituent parts of the United States; they are members of one great empire--for some purposes sovereign, for some purposes subordinate."
Chief Justice Marshall, Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, (1821)
Is Marshall a liar?
"These states are constituent parts of the United States; they are members of one great empire--for some purposes sovereign, for some purposes subordinate." Chief Justice Marshall, Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, (1821)
Is Marshall a liar?
Sovereign yes, but not completely sovereign.
You seem to have snipped it a bit:
"That the United States form, for many, and for most important purposes, a single nation, has not yet been denied. In war, we are one people. In making peace, we are one people. In all commercial regulations, we are one and the same people. In many other respects, the American people are one; and the government which is alone capable of controlling and managing their interests in all these respects, is the government of the Union. It is their government and in that character, they have no other. America has chosen to be, in many respects, and in many purposes, a nation; and for all these purposes, her government is complete; to all these objects it is competent. The people have declared that in the exercise of all powers given for these objects, it is supreme. It can, then, in effecting these objects, legitimately control all individuals or governments within the American territory. The constitution and laws of a state, so far as they are repugnant to the constitution and laws of of the United States are absolutely void. These states are constituent parts of the United States; they are members of one great empire--for some purposes sovereign, for some purposes subordinate."
--Chief Justice John Marshall, writing the majority opinion, Cohens v. Virginia 1821
Walt