Sovereignty
In January, 1776, the Massachusetts General Court had proclaimed; "It is a Maxim that, in every Government, there must exist, Somewhere, a Supreme, Sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable Power, But this Power resides, always in the body of the People, and it never was, or can be delegated, to one Man, or a few."
As one Connecticut town declared in 1783; "...there is an original, underived and incommunicable authority and supremacy, in the collective body of the people, to whom all delegated power must submit, and from whom there is no appeal." (Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787, W.W. Norton & Co., c1969, at382.)
The counties of Orange and Mecklenburg, North Carolina informed their delegates at the North Carolina Convention of 1776; "Political power is of two kinds, one principal and superior, the other derived and inferior...The principal supreme power is possessed by the people at large, the derived and inferior power by the servants they employ." (The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787, at 364.)
Regarding the concept of "sovereignty" as applies to "America," Justice Wilson in Chisholm, Ex'r. v. Georgia, 2 Dall, 419, 1 U.S. (L.ed., 454, 457, 471, 472), 1793, made the following statements:
"It will be sufficient to observe briefly, that the sovereignties in Europe, and particularly in England, exist on feudal principles. That system considers the Prince as the sovereign, and the people as his subjects; it regards his person as the object of allegiance, and excludes the idea of his being on an equal footing with a subject, either in a Court of Justice or elsewhere. That system contemplates him as being the fountain of honor and authority; and from his grace and grant derives all franchises, immunities and privileges..." at 471.
"From the differences existing between feudal sovereignties and Government founded on compacts, it necessarily follows that their respective prerogatives must differ. Sovereignty is the right to govern; a nation or State-sovereign is the person or persons in whom that resides. In Europe the sovereignty is generally ascribed to the Prince; here it rests with the people; there, the sovereign actually administers the Government; here, never in a single instance; our Governors are the agents of the people, and at most stand in the same relation to their sovereign, in which regents in Europe stand to their sovereigns. Their Princes have personal powers, dignities, and pre-eminences, our rulers have none but official; nor do they partake in the sovereignty otherwise, or in any other capacity, than as private citizens." at 472.
Reference: Blackstone's Commentaries, "View of the Constitution of the United States, Section 2 - Nature of U.S. Constitution; manner of its adoption; as annotated by St. George Tucker, William Young Birch and Abraham Small, c1803:
"... a very great lawyer, who wrote but a few years before the American revolution, seems to doubt whether the original contract of society had in any one instance been formally expressed at the first institution of a state; The American revolution seems to have given birth to this new political phenomenon: in every state a written constitution was framed, and adopted by the people, both in their individual and sovereign capacity, and character. By this means, the just distinction between the sovereignty, and the government, was rendered familiar to every intelligent mind; the former was found to reside in the people, and to be unalienable from them; the latter in their servants and agents: by this means, also, government was reduced to its elements; its object was defined, it's principles ascertained; its powers limited, and fixed; its structure organized; and the functions of every part of the machine so clearly designated, as to prevent any interference, so long as the limits of each were observed...."
