He showed, as we shall see, that by adopting the Constitution a national government was formed, with legislative authority to make laws that should be supreme within the powers granted in the Constitution, with an Executive to carry out those laws, and a supreme Judicial Department that should decide all questions arising under those laws, and whether they were within the granted powers, whose decision no State could question. After disposing of the personal attack on himself and that against the East, Webster took up that against the Union; he went back to its formation, treating it historically. Under the confederacy made between the States the whole power of the government was in the Continental Congress. Though it could make war and peace, it could raise troops and obtain its revenues only through the action of the several States; it could not even regulate commerce and had no coercive power over the States; its executive powers were exercised by committees and officers appointed by the Congress. This Continental Congress carried the country safely through the revolution; but during the few years afterwards,--without the rights and powers essential to an effective government, without a Judiciary and a responsible Executive, the States quarrelling amongst themselves and struggling with internal troubles--its authority became so weakened that it inspired respect neither at home nor abroad[4]; and the people of all the States, finding the necessity of a stronger government, the separate States entered into a convention to form one. [4] Chief-Justice Marshall, in his opinion in the case of Cohens _vs._ Virginia, says that its requisitions were habitually disregarded by the States. Mr. John Fiske, in his admirable work, called _The Critical Period of American History_, fully shows the inefficiency and inadequacy of the government of the Confederacy. The first resolution of this convention was, that the government of the United States ought to consist of a _Supreme Legislature, Judiciary, and Executive_; this showed the power that it intended to give the government. The declaration in the preamble of the Constitution they formed, set forth: “We, the PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union,” etc., “do _ordain and establish_ this Constitution for the United States of America.”[5] It was not that the States or the people of the separate States made the Constitution, but it was the people of the whole United States, and the acceptance of this Constitution was submitted to conventions of each State, chosen by the people, and not to the State governments and legislatures. [5] See Webster’s speech in answer to Calhoun, Webster’s _Speeches_, vol. ii., page 180. Ed. of 1850.