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What is properly meant by "the Union"?

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By "the Union" is properly meant the whole American nation, which is to say, the people of all the American colonies/states bound together as, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, "one people"--_—e pluibis unum--_first pluribus unum—first uniting as such and then formally constituting and governing themselves under their constitution.

As such, the Union in due course, but only in due course, acquired a formal constitutional structure--namelystructure—namely, that set forth, first, in the Articles of Confederation and then, presently-presently—"in order to form a more perfect union"-the —the Constitution. The formal structure of the Union, according to the Constitution, is that of a compound republic-more republic—more exactly, an extended compound republic-whose republic—whose principal institution, in addition to its twofold system of federal and state government, is the division of powers-legislativepowers—legislative, executive, and judicial--at judicial—at both levels of governance.

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