their allegiance was transferred to another. I have denied the doctrine that Representatives were not bound by the instructions of their constituents, and that every government must be Sovereign, which possesses the power to punish Treason. By all these means, and by others, I have sought to establish the continuous freedom and independence of these States, who therefore, although bound by a holy bond of Union, which none ought to violate, are nevertheless Sovereigns.
What may be the effects of this Sovereignty, in regard to the Constitution of the United States, I will next examine. But here let me warn my readers, that if any still believe, that they owe no allegiance to their State, that their Representatives are not accountable to them, that every government which possesses the power to punish Treason is a Sovereign, or that by these or any other means the several sovereign States have become "a single Nation," they will but waste time in perusing what I may hereafter write, since it will all proceed upon the assumption of the negative of all these propositions.
