State Sovereignty: The True Nature and Character of Our Federal Government

Not many years ago I became aware of the conflicting uses of the word “sovereignty.”  The states are not sovereign today nor have they been for a long time.  However, that has not always been the case.  To understand the FACT of “state sovereignty” we must understand the situation of the states before the Constitution was adopted. 

Thirteen states sent delegates to a Congress in 1776 which announced to King George III that they were henceforth thirteen “FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.”  These thirteen distinct and individual political entities announced that they were assuming their “separate and equal Station” “among the Powers of the Earth.”  These thirteen new “STATES” were just as unique as “the State of Great-Britain.”  Each state wrote its own constitution and held complete “power to govern without external control.”  At the “Second Treaty of Paris” in 1783, King George III named each state individually, acknowledging them to be “free, sovereign and independent States”, which was confirmed in their first constitution, the Articles of Confederation.

In the “united States” the individual people are sovereign; however, “the Constitution was thus a compact among the states, resting on the sovereignty of the people as expressed through their state conventions.”  (John Taylor of Caroline)  “The people of the several States, composing these United States are united as parties to a constitutional compact, to which the people of each State acceded as a separate sovereign community, each binding itself by its own particular ratification…”  (James Madison) 

On my table is a documented list of 17 additional founding fathers who described the proposed American political system as a federation of sovereign states. 

The Constitution was eventually ratified by each state individually.  The proposed document was “submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the People thereof, under the Recommendation of its Legislature, for their Assent and Ratification.”  The federal government was created by the states to serve as an agent and perform a few enumerated duties.  The “government” was directly accountable to the states.  All federal public servants are citizens of specific states and were elected or appointed by and for their state.

It is at times assumed that the federal government has supreme power because “the states are specifically denied power to make treaties or alliances with other states or nations.”  The “supreme power” is a delegated power!  The states hold the power to amend which is the power to abolish. 

Some people believe in supreme federal power over the states because the U. S. Constitution empowers Congress to “call out the militia to put down insurrections.”  Overlooked is the Article IV restriction on the use of federal coercive force.  The confederated agent of the states is to “protect each of them [the states] against Invasion [external violence]; and on Application of the Legislature…against domestic Violence.”  In other words the “government” must obtain permission from the state BEFORE it may enter the state to “put down” internal violence, such as violence associated with strikes, insurrection and rebellion. 

The governmental system adopted in 1789 was a voluntary “union of states—a voluntary federation of sovereigns—a voluntary republic of republics.”  I pray that those of us who love liberty will do our home-work and strive to restore our God-inspired system once again.

Stephen Pratt