We the People are sovereign. Constitutions are the instructions of We the People to the people we entrust with powers at the Federal and State governments.

We the People had just used state governments to enforce “No Taxation without Representation.” In ratifying the Constituiton, We the People understood the need for Divided Sovereignty between ourselves, a general government (federal), and state governments.

This Divided Sovereignty is stated in the Preamble that the Federal powers are limited to issues of war. It is restated in the 9th and 10th Amendments:

  • 1st Paragraph on the Constitution is the Federal mission statement: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
  • 9th Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
  • 10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

Federalist Papers 1-46 explain Divided Sovereignty between We the People, federal, and state governments. Examples:

  1. Federalist #51 (Madison): “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
  2. Federalist #46 (Madison): "The federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers, and designed for different purposes."
  3. Federalist #28: “Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing the union to preserve to themselves an advantage which can never be too highly prized!”
  4. Federalist #45: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."
  5. Federist #46: "Is the aggregate power of the general government greater than ought to have been vested in it? ... that the choice must always be made, if not of the lesser evil, at least of the GREATER, not the PERFECT, good; and that in every political institution, a power to advance the public happiness involves a discretion which may be misapplied and abused. They will see, therefore, that in all cases where power is to be conferred, the point first to be decided is, whether such a power be necessary to the public good; as the next will be, in case of an affirmative decision, to guard as effectually as possible against a perversion of the power to the public detriment.That we may form a correct judgment on this subject, it will be proper to review the several powers conferred on the government of the Union; and that this may be the more conveniently done they may be reduced into different classes as they relate to the following different objects:
    1. Security against foreign danger;
    2. Regulation of the intercourse with foreign nations;
    3. Maintenance of harmony and proper intercourse among the States;
    4. Certain miscellaneous objects of general utility;
    5. Restraint of the States from certain injurious acts;
    6. Provisions for giving due efficacy to all these powers.

The powers falling within the FIRST class are those of declaring war and granting letters of marque; of providing armies and fleets; of regulating and calling forth the militia; of levying and borrowing money. Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union."

To ensure that people serving us in state governments understood their duty to defend the Constitution against federal misconduct, We the People required them to swear an oath to defend the Constitution as specified in Article 6: “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Facets of Divided Sovereignty are sometimes referred to as "Federalism" and "States Rights." The term "States Rights" is corrupted by its involvement in slavery, Jim Crow, and suppressing due process for women. "Federalism" is often used by lawyers to express the difference between federal and state powers without including the fact that We the People are the sovereigns. "Federalism" has also been corrupted by legal tolerance of Federal consolidation of powers reserved by the 9th and 10th Amendments. The failures of the legal system is underscored by the fact that the 9th Amendment has never been effectively used to defend the sovereignty of We the People by the legal profession. War was required to end slavery and riots to end Jim Crow.