As we sit in those conventions and dwell upon the wisdom of the _practical_ thought which inspired those words, “in three fourths thereof” after the word “conventions,” we know why the people with whom we sit compelled the tribute that they grasped the science of government better than any other people in the world. The one aim of all of them was the happiness and welfare of the _individual_. The welfare or prosperity of the political entities, which we know as America and the respective states, were of no importance to these people, except as they contributed to the welfare of the _individual_. The prestige and the power of each and every government in America and of all governments in America together were of no importance to these people, except as they contributed to the welfare of the _individual_. And when _we_ sit with them in their conventions, after living with them through their experience from 1775, we realize (as we have never realized before) that the Statute of ’76 was enacted, that the _national_ constitutions of government were made by the _people_ in each colony, that the sacrifices of the Revolution were endured for eight years, that the federation of states was established by states in 1781, that the wisdom and ability and patriotism of America had just assembled at Philadelphia in 1787 and made its proposal which we are considering in these conventions--_all that the welfare of the_ INDIVIDUAL _might be secured_. We realize that the wisdom and ability and patriotism of America, at Philadelphia, had labored for months to ascertain, by the light of all human experience, in what proportion (_solely to secure the welfare of the individual_) power to interfere with individual freedom ought to be surrendered at all to governments and retained by the people, and in what proportion the quantum of surrendered power should be _left_ with each state government over its own individuals and given to the new general government over its individual citizens. We realize that the wisdom and ability and patriotism of America, at Philadelphia, had _known_ that no governments, then or in the future, if individual welfare was to be secured, could ever legally determine either proportion or could ever alter either proportion, when once established by the supreme will in America, the “people” of the Preamble and Tenth Amendment, the “conventions” of the Seventh and Fifth Articles.