been admitted on the same considerations which produced the privilege defended by it.
- “The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states, ratifying the same.”
This article speaks for itself. The express authority of the people alone could give due validity to the Constitution. To have required the unanimous ratification of the thirteen states, would have subjected the essential interests of the whole to the caprice or corruption of a single member. It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.
Two questions of a very delicate nature present themselves on this occasion: 1. On what principle the Confederation, which stands in the solemn form of a compact among the states, can be superseded without the unanimous consent of the parties to it? 2. What relation is to subsist between the nine or more states ratifying the Constitution, and the remaining few who do not become parties to it?