The government that has organized the largest union of states on earth is itself not a state, is not located in a state and does not have the full sovereign powers common to states. Between 1787 and 1790,13 independent sovereign states ratified a Constitution and created a central government with limited sovereign powers in order to create a more perfect union of their states. The new central government of a non-state possessed no state territory. Small portions of land were taken from the states of Virginia and Maryland and the District of Columbia was created. A government with some powers valid in 13 states was located in a tiny portion of land named a “district”. It alone was given the power to admit new states to the union. From the admission of Vermont in 1791 to that of Hawaii in 1959, the Congress of the central government located in the District of Columbia has passed bills admitting 37 new states to the United States of America. The history of the revolutionary political structure that resulted is far too complicated for any easy comprehension but one conclusion must be held universally: it is not a nation. A nation has one supreme government with the power to enact laws valid for every citizen located within four national boundaries north, east,south and west. Some laws passed in Washington and some judgments of the Supreme Court in Washington are valid for all Americans but by no means does our central government have the full power to create any law at all as it wishes as is characteristic of a nation. In fact, the main political action that Washington has taken consistently throughout its history is the admission of new states to its union. Over a period of 170 years, it admitted 37 new states. Why should it stop doing what it has always done? Why should it stop admitting new states to its union if doing so is part of its very nature? A union of states is what it is, a union of states. A union of states can not become a nation without grave damage to its nature. It should heal any past damage done to its nature by admitting in its future new states.
Daniel McNeill
Click on the URL to read Daniel McNeill’s novel. “Whacks, Women and Wanderings in the Soul”:www.usoftheworld.com/fiction
Read an adaptation of Hawthorne's novel "The Marble Faun" as a play at:usoftheworld.com
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