“The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to a condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly, either by force or by right.”
Thus, upon a thorough and impartial study of the early nineteenth-century American landscape, Tocqueville could not help but conclude that the states were sovereign. Such sovereignty was not only a critical feature of the new Constitution but was also so engrained into American custom that it was akin to a father’s authority in the family. “The sovereignty of the states,” wrote Tocqueville, “is sustained by memories, habits, local prejudices, regional and familial self-interest; in short, by all things that make the patriotic instinct such a powerful force in the heart of man.”
Source: Breaking Away From the Centralized State – LewRockwell
