The Federalist Papers · Federalist No. 9 · paragraph 10

“This form of government is a convention by which several smaller STATES agree to become members of a larger ONE, which they intend to form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.

Publius · Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison · 1787–1788
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