ABSTRACT
The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons existing. Legally speaking, therefore, there is, in the Constitution, nothing that professes or attempts to bind the "posterity" of those who established it. Consequently, so far as voting is concerned, the other five-sixths can have given no pledge that they will support the Constitution. As all the different votes are given secretly, there is no legal means of knowing, from the votes themselves, who votes for, and who votes against, the Constitution. Therefore, voting affords no legal evidence that any particular individual supports the Constitution. The payment of taxes, being compulsory, of course furnishes no evidence that any one voluntarily supports the Constitution.
