Of course; no dreamer would compound the mass of the American people into one.
"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
That the United States form, for many, and for most important purposes, a single nation, has not yet been denied.
andThe Constitution of the United States was formed not, in my opinion, as some have contended, by the people of the United States, nor, as others, by the States, but by a combined power, exercised by the people, through their delegates, limited in their sanctions, to the respective States.
Had the Constitution emanated from the people, and the States had been referred to merely as convenient districts by which the public expression could be ascertained, the popular vote throughout the Union would have been the only rule for the adoption of the Constitution. This course was not pursued; and in this fact, it clearly appears that our fundamental law was not formed exclusively by the popular suffrage of the people.
The vote of the people was limited to the respective States in which they resided . So that it appears there was an expression of popular suffrage and State sanction, most happily united, in the adoption of the Constitution of the Union.
The powers given, it is true, are limited; and no powers which are not expressly given can be exercised by the Federal Government ; but, where given, they are supreme. Within the sphere allotted to them, the coordinate branches of the General Government revolve unobstructed by any legitimate exercise of power by the State governments. The powers exclusively given to the Federal Government are limitations upon the State authorities. But, with the exception of these limitations, the States are supreme, and their sovereignty can be no more invaded by the action of the General Government than the action of the State governments in arrest or obstruct the course of the national power.
Every State is more or less dependent on those which surround it, but, unless this dependence shall extend so far as to merge the political existence of the protected people into that of their protectors, they may still constitute a State. They may exercise the powers not relinquished, and bind themselves as a distinct and separate community.
Justice McLean, Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515, (1832)
It [the federal Constitution] defines the powers of the General Government, and imposes certain restrictions and duties on the States; but, beyond this, it in no degree affects the powers of the States. The powers which belong to a State are exercised independently; in its sphere of sovereignty, it stands on an equality with the Federal Government, and is not subject to its control.
Justice McLean, Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 41 U.S. 539, (1842)