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For any State unilaterally to legally appoint its Senators, replace
central government programs with its own, and relegate the ultimate
Court of Appeals to an arbitration service with no need for further
Amendments or Conventions, pursuant to Art. VII of the Constitution
and inspired by Jefferson, whose attachment to the theory of state
sovereignty and skepticism toward the Constitution isn't surprising
considering his opposition to the strong federal government that it
enables. In fact, Madison, his closest political ally through much
of his career, led by example in restraining Jefferson's more anti-
Constitutional rhetoric. However, as Jefferson aged, and especially
near the end of his life, his position hardened on nullification,
writing privately that the time might come when the southern states
would have no choice but to use nullification against the growing
power of the federal government or to even dissolve the Union. The
presentation here proposes devolution as a viable alternative to
nullification, which Jefferson or the South might have thought of,
had they been strict constructionists of Article VII that allows
for States of the Union not to be States of a compact in which the
United States is defined as the trustee vis-a-vis THE United States
of America--"the Union" as defined in the Articles of Confederation
& Perpetual Union.
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