But don't take my word on it; the quotes in the title are from James Wilson and John Marshall, then-future Supreme Court Justices, speaking in state conventions that ratified the Constitution in 1787 and 1788. (Wilson was also a principal drafter of the Constitution.) Wilson defended the Constitution in the Pennsylvania convention by speaking of the three forms of government being the "monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical," and said that in a democracy the sovereign power is "inherent in the people, and is either exercised by themselves or by their representatives." He added,
Of what description is the Constitution before us? In its principles, it is purely democratical: varying indeed in its form in order to admit all the advantages, and to exclude all the disadvantages which are incidental to the known and established constitutions of government. But when we take an extensive and accurate view of the streams of power that appear through this great and comprehensive plan … we shall be able to trace them to one great and noble source, THE PEOPLE….
Chief Justice John Marshall—who helped lead the fight in the Virginia Convention for ratifying the U.S. Constitution—likewise defended the Constitution in that convention thus:
