From My Journal (XI)

Wednesday, June 17,2009:

The people in the political capacity are the source of sovereignty in the US. The founders did not view the states as sovereign, contrary to modern Conservatives. The founders did not view the federal government as the source of sovereignty, contrary to the modern Left.

The People of the several states were one People forged in war. This unity and sovereignty forged by the recent Revolution and almost 200 years of shared history were the reasons that it was not each state that was sovereign but the People as Americans in their political capacity were the source of sovereignty. It was not the federal government that was the source of sovereignty because it was the People, acting in their political capacity who ratified the Constitution, with the understanding of future amendments. They did so, not through a federal Congress or the state legislatures, but through specific conventions in each state. These conventions, although state-bases, did not represent the state government's acceptance of the Constitution. They represented the People of that state as Americans acknowledging or disavowing, as in the case of RI and NC, their unity with the rest of one American People.

This is the great secret of the unity and greatness of our country. Ultimately the source of sovereignty for both the federal governments and the state governments lie not in themselves but in the American People, acting in their political capacity through the clause in the constitution authorizing state constitutional conventions.

The founders did not abolish state governments in the Constitution, as some wanted, to create a Unitary State. They had not authority to do this because the states already existed and the People had not ratified the Constitution. This would have been to presume the will of the People. After the People ratified, then those states had no authority to abolish or disregard the Constitution.

So, from the beginning, both the powers of the federal government and the states relationship to the federal government was instituted and regulated by the People acting in their political capacity. This remains so today.

The federal government does not have power over the states. The states do not have power over the federal government. The People, acting in their political capacity are the source of sovereignty for all governments, state and federal, in the United States of America.