In these respects, it was little in advance
of the rejected Articles. Its strength lay in the possibilities of its
administration. But as a document in 1789, it was the product of
federated States. If all the people of the United States could have
assembled and formed a constitution to go into effect immediately, or
even if delegates, chosen by the people of the United States as a
whole, had drawn up such a document, which had been adopted by the
entire people or their delegates in a ratifying body, there would have
been a national sovereignty wholly independent of the States from the
beginning. Such a procedure was impossible--the very best reason why
it was not attempted. A pure democracy is possible only among a small
number of people living in a small State. For a large population and
an extensive territory representative government must be substituted.
If the idea of government in the British colonies in North America had
been national instead of local from the beginning, the States would
have disappeared under the Constitution, or have been kept only for
selecting national representatives, and performing other national
functions.
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