The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago. [...] Those persons, if any, who did give their consent formally, are all dead now. [...] And the Constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. (1870) source Unverified