Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

When the Articles of Confederation were amended, when the new Constitution was substituted in their place and the general government reorganized, its structure was changed, additional powers were conferred upon it, and thereby subtracted from the powers theretofore exercised by the state governments; the seat of sovereignty—the source of all those delegated and dependent powers—was not disturbed. There was a new government or an amended government—it is entirely immaterial in which of these lights we consider it—but no new people was created or constituted. The people, in whom alone sovereignty inheres, remained just as they had been before. The only change was in the form, structure, and relations of their governmental agencies.

No doubt the states—the people of the states—if they had been so disposed, might have merged themselves into one great consolidated state, retaining their geographical boundaries merely as matters of convenience. But such a merger must have been distinctly and formally stated, not left to deduction or implication.

Men do not alienate even an estate, without positive and express terms and stipulations. But in this case not only was there no express transfer—no formal surrender—of the preexisting sovereignty, but it was expressly provided that nothing should be understood as even delegated—that everything was reserved, unless granted in express terms. The monstrous conception of the creation of a new people, invested with the whole or a great part of the sovereignty which had previously belonged to the people of each state, has not a syllable to sustain it in the Constitution, but is built up entirely upon the palpable misconstruction of a single expression in the preamble.

In denying that there is any such collective unit as the people of the United States in the aggregate, of course I am not to be understood as denying that there is such a political organization as the United States, or that there exists, with large and distinct powers, a government of the United States; but it is claimed that the Union, as its name implies, is constituted of states. As a British author,¹ referring to the old Teutonic system, has expressed the same idea, the states are the integers, the United States the multiple which results from them. The government of the United States derives its existence from the same source, and exercises its functions by the will of the same sovereignty that creates and confers authority upon the state governments. The people of each state