Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit.

Others insisted that the Nation was sovereign.

These two conflicting views run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in Washington's time they existed in outline.

Washington himself was a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible.

He had had too much evidence during the Revolution of the weakness of uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin and training had planted in him a strong sympathy for State rights.