The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law

The Revolution came, and what happened then? Simply this we cut the cord that tied us to Great Britain, and there was no longer an external sovereign. Our conception now was that the people took his place that is to say, our own home population in the several States were now their own sovereign. So far as exist ing institutions were left untouched, they were construed by trans lating the name and style of the English sovereign into that of our new ruler, ourselves, the People. After this the charters, and still more obviously the new constitutions, were not so many orders from without, backed by an organized outside government, which simply performed an ordinary function in enforcing them; they were precepts from the people themselves who were to be gov erned, addressed to each of their own number, and especially to those who were charged with the duty of conducting the govern ment. No higher power existed to support these orders by com pulsion of the ordinary sort. The sovereign himself, having written these expressions of his will, had retired into the clouds; in any regular course of events he had no organ to enforce his will, except those to whom his orders were addressed in these documents. How then should his written constitution be enforced if these agencies did not obey him, if they failed, or worked amiss?

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