enjoyed, and the people may be in a good degree prosperous. But the
requisite virtue and wisdom have seldom been found in any one man or a
few men. And experience has proved that the objects of civil government
may be best secured by a written constitution founded upon the will or
consent of the people.

§2. The word _constitute_ is from the Latin, and signifies _to set_, to
fix, to establish. _Constitution_, when used in a political sense, means
the established form of government of a state. In a free government,
like ours, it is properly called the _political law_, being established
by the people as a body politic, or political body. (Chap. III,
§5.) It is also called the _fundamental law_, because it is the
_foundation_ of all other laws of the state, which are enacted by the
legislature for regulating intercourse between the citizens, and are
called the _municipal_ or _civil_ law, and must conform to the
fundamental, or political law.

§3. A constitution is in the nature of an agreement between a whole
community or body politic and each of its members. This agreement or
contract implies, that each one binds himself to the whole, and the
whole bind themselves to each one, that all shall be governed by certain
laws and regulations for the common good.

§4. The nature of a constitution will further appear from the manner in
which it is made. It is evident that a people, in establishing a
constitution, must have some right or authority to act in the business.
Whence this right is derived, we will not now stop to inquire. There is,
however, somewhere power to enact a law authorizing the people to make a
constitution and prescribing the manner in which it is to be made.