In the Shadow of Our Founders: Part Two
of a Union indefinitely? How can we reconcile this apparent contradiction?
It is virtually impossible to derive from all the documentary evidence of the founding era a fixed, tangible, and unimpeachable understanding of the nature of the union between the states during the Revolution and the years immediately following. The only thing certain is that Jefferson Davis is correct that the Founders held the states to be sovereign, and Lincoln is also correct that the Union was firmly in place at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed and it was expected to last forever.
2. The Constitution is a compact between the states.
The next central point of Jefferson Davis's position is that the Constitution of 1787 was a compact between the sovereign states of the Union. In this position, he found himself at odds with many of the staunch Unionists in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. In his book, Davis quotes both the legendary senator from Massachusetts, Daniel Webster, and the renowned Supreme Court justice and law professor, Joseph Story, as critics of the "compact" theory. Davis does an admirably thorough job in holding their position up to careful inspection. And, in the end, Davis's argument appears the stronger.
Davis succeeds brilliantly in proving that the Constitution was written in a convention made up of state-appointed delegations and then submitted to the states for ratification. It was only when a sufficient number of states acceded to the Constitution that it became the Supreme Law of the Land.
The real question, however, is not whether the Constitution is a compact between the states. Most historians would have to agree that it is. The real question is what kind of compact was established. To answer that question, we must return again to the Articles of Confederation.
In language that has shades of John Locke's "state of nature" political theory, Section II of the Articles acknowledges that some of the states' "power[s], jurisdiction[s], and right[s]" are to be delegated to the central authority of the United States. The purpose of this delegation becomes clear in Section III, when it terms the confederacy a "firm league of friendship for [the states'] common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare."
To understand this language, it's necessary to understand John Locke, as all the Founders certainly did. Locke's "state of nature" theory of government was essentially that individuals
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