I have hitherto considered each State as a separate whole, and I have explained the different springs which the people sets in motion, and the different means of action which it employs.

But all the States which I have considered as independent are forced to submit, in certain cases, to the supreme authority of the Union.

The time is now come for me to examine separately the supremacy with which the Union has been invested, and to cast a rapid glance over the Federal Constitution.
Chapter Summary Origin of the first Union--Its weakness--Congress appeals to the constituent authority--Interval of two years between this appeal and the promulgation of the new Constitution.
History Of The Federal Constitution The thirteen colonies which simultaneously threw off the yoke of England towards the end of the last century professed, as I have already observed, the same religion, the same language, the same customs, and almost the same laws; they were struggling against a common enemy; and these reasons were sufficiently strong to unite them one to another, and to consolidate them into one nation.

But as each of them had enjoyed a separate existence and a government within its own control, the peculiar interests and customs which resulted from this system were opposed to a compact and intimate union which would have absorbed the individual importance of each in the general importance of all.

Hence arose two opposite tendencies, the one prompting the Anglo-Americans to unite, the other to divide their strength.