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Entry: The Limits of Lincoln Bashing Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_limits_of_lincoln_bashing#24259 Post contents: Mr. Van O., your confusion about the meaning of the word "states" is very common. In fact, it is propagated by John Marshall in _McCulloch v. Maryland_, even though Marshall knew better. Marshall knew that "states" did not necessarily mean "state governments" because he was in the minority in the Virginia General Assembly when it adopted Madison's _Report of 1800_. In the Report, Madison answered pro-Sedition Act northern legislatures' claim that the states had had nothing to do with ratification by pointing out that "state" can have any of several referants: 1) the territory of a state (as in, "I'm in Connecticut"); 2) the government of a state (as in, "Texas has capital punishment"); or the sovereign people of a state (as in, "The states ratified the Constitution"). The states ratified the Constitution, each for itself. If one American people had ratified, some kind of majority's act would have bound the whole, yet Rhode Island remained separate from the Union for many months after the Constitution was implemented. As I said, Marshall was in the General Assembly when Madison explained this, and when the Report was adopted. It is obvious, indeed, that the states ratified the Constitution. In fact, the Constitution itself says that it will take effect among the ratifying states as soon as nine states have ratified. It takes a lawyer with an agenda (Hamilton, Webster, Marshall, Lincoln) to deny this fact. Sent at: 2008 08 28