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Today marks the 239th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States. Of course, this year is also the 250th birthday of our nation. That these dates are different is an important reminder: Setting forth the principles of government is not the same thing as establishing a successful structure of government.

The Declaration of Independence is the greatest statement of the principles of a free society. A human being is a particular kind of thing. Just as we can define a tree or a horse or a chair, we can define a human being. The Declaration asserts that human beings have rights, including the right to come together to protect and defend our rights. Yet it acknowledges that there is no single way to do that—that prudence, often defined as practical wisdom, plays a key role.

The Constitution is the result of practical wisdom. The American Founders learned from their own mistakes and those of many other societies to establish a government with separated powers. While all governments exercise the power of the people, in the American system the people organize first within our states, and then use that power to create both a national government and local governments. Thatstructure, often described as the vertical separation of powers, is called federalism.

There is also a horizontal separation of powers, dividing the power of making the laws from the power of enforcing the laws and of deciding disputes about that enforcement. Those three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—are described in the first three articles of the Constitution. They are also present in each state government, and this structure is often called a republican form of government.

The Electoral College is an expression of both kinds of separation of powers and an essential piece of the American constitutional system. The people, within each state, choose presidential electors. Power is allocated within the system according to the same constitutional balance of power in Congress. States run their own elections, within limits established by the Constitution itself as well as by Congress. Most disputes are contained within individual states; only those of a truly national character may be addressed by federal courts.

Containing campaigns and elections within individual states keeps power separated and makes the entire system more resilient. It also forces political campaigns and the parties that support them to build larger, more national coalitions than would be required for a single national direct election. Separation of powers, especially constitutional federalism, has allowed these United States to experience the very best of both diversity and unity.

Save Our States defends the Electoral College because we believe in the principles of the Declaration and the wisdom of the Constitution. We also believe in the results. That is, we believe that Americans have enjoyed the blessings of liberty, and will continue to experience those blessings, to the extent that we live up to those principles and adhere to our Constitution.