[* 9] *Left at liberty now to assume complete powers of sovereignty as independent governments, these two States saw fit soon to resume their place in the American family, under a permission contained in the Constitution; and new States have since been added from time to time, all of them, with a single exception, organized by the consent of the general government and embracing territory previously under its control. The exception was Texas, which had previously been an independent sovereign State, but which, by the conjoint action of its government and that of the United States, was received into the Union on an equal footing with the other States. Without therefore discussing, or even designing to allude to any abstract theories as to the precise position and actual power of the several States at the time of forming the present Constitution, it may be said of them generally that they have at all times been subject to some common national government, which has exercised control over the subjects of war and peace, and other matters pertaining to external sovereignty; and that when the only three States which ever exercised complete sovereignty accepted the Constitution and came into the Union, on an equal footing with all the other States, they thereby accepted the same relative position to the general government, and divested themselves permanently of those national powers which the others had never exercised. And the assent once given to the Union was irrevocable. "The Constitution in all its provisions looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States." 2 The government of the United States is one of enumerated powers; the national Constitution being the instrument which specifies them, and in which authority should be found for the exercise of any power which the national government assumes are past, and the anticipation of a speedy triumph over the obstacles to reunion, will, it is hoped, not urge in vain moderation on one side, and prudence on the other." Federalist, No. 43 (by Madison). may be observed, that although no political relation can subsist between the assenting and dissenting States, yet the moral relations will remain uncancelled. The claims of justice, both on one side and on the other, will be in force and must be fulfilled; the rights of humanity must in all cases be duly and mutually respected; 2 Chase, Ch. J., in Texas v. White, whilst considerations of a common 7 Wall. 700, 725. See United States interest, and above all the remem- v. Cathcart, 1 Bond, 556. brance of the endearing scenes which 1 See this subject discussed in Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1. to possess.1 In this respect it differs from the constitutions of the several States, which are not grants of [10] powers to the States, but which apportion and impose restrictions upon the powers which the States inherently possess. The general purpose of the Constitution of the United States is declared by its founders to be, "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." To accomplish these purposes, the Congress is empowered by the eighth section of article one: 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States. But all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy, throughout the United States. 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States. 7. To establish post-offices and post-roads. 8. To promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by 1 "The government of the United States can claim no powers which are not granted to it by the Constitution; and the powers actually granted must be such as are expressly given, or given by necessary implication." Per Marshall, Ch. J., in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 326. This instrument contains an enumeration of the powers expressly granted by the people to their government." Marshall, Ch. J., in Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 187. See Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386; Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky, 11 Pet. 257; Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713; United States v. Cruikshanks, 92 U. S. Rep. 542, 550, 551, per Waite, Ch. J.; Weister v. Hade, 52 Penn. St. 477. The tenth amendment to the Constitution provides that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." No power is conferred by the Constitution upon Congress to establish mere police regulations within the States. United States v. Dewitt, 9 Wall. 41. See Live Stock, &c. Association v. Crescent City, &c. Co., 16 Wall. 36. securing for limited terms to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed upon the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. 10. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. 11. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 12. To provide and maintain a navy. 13. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. [*11] * 14. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the nation, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. 15. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 16. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district not exceeding ten miles square as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings. 17. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. Congress is also empowered by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution to enforce the same by appropriate legislation. The thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, throughout the United States and all places subject to their jurisdiction. The fourteenth amendment has several objects. 1. It declares all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, to be citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside; and it forbids any State to make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, or to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 2. It provides that when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President or Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or is in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of congressional representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 3. It disqualifies from holding Federal or State offices certain persons who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. 4. It declares the inviolability of the public debt of the United States, and forbids the United States or any State assuming or paying any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave. The fifteenth amendment declares that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.1 1 See, as to these amendments, Story on Const. (4th ed.) c. 46, 47, 48, and App. to Vol. II. The new amendments do not enlarge the privilege of suffrage so as to entitle women to vote. Bradwell v. State, 16 Wall. 130; Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162. They do not entitle persons as of right to sell intoxicating drinks against the prohibitions of State laws. Barbemeyer v. Iowa, 18 Wall. 129. They are not violated by the grant by a State, under its police power, of an exclusive right for a term of years to have and maintain slaughter-houses, landings for cattle, and yards for in closing cattle intended for slaughter, within certain specified parishes: Live Stock, &c. Association v. Crescent City, &c. Co., 16 Wall. 36; nor by denying the right of jury trial in State courts: Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U. S. Rep. 90. Since these amendments, as before, sovereignty for the protection of life and personal liberty. within the respective States rests alone with the States, and the United States cannot take cognizance of invasions of the privilege of suffrage when race, color, or previous condition of suffrage is not the ground thereof. United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. Rep. The executive power is vested in a president, who is made commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of the militia of the several States when called into the service of the United States; and who has power, by and with the consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senate concur, and, with the same advice and consent, to appoint ambassadors and other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not otherwise provided for.1 The judicial power of the United States extends to all cases in law and equity arising under the national Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States; and between a [*12] *State or citizens thereof and foreign States, citizens or subjects. But a State is not subject to be sued in the courts of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.3 The Constitution and the laws of the United States, made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, are declared to be the supreme law of the land; and the judges of every State are to be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.4 214; United States v. Cruikshanks, 92 U. S. Rep. 542. See, further, Kennard v. Louisiana, 92 U. S. Rep. 480; Railroad Co. v. Brown, 17 Wall. 446. 1 U. S. Const. art. 2. 2 U. S. Const. art. 3, § 2. 3 U. S. Const. 11th Amendment. 4 U. S. Const. art. 6; Owings v. Norwood's Lessee, 5 Cranch, 318; McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316; Foster v. Neilson, 2 Pet. 253, 314; Cook v. Moffat, 5 How. 295; Dodge v. Woolsey, 18 How. 331. When a treaty has been ratified by the proper formalities, it is, by the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, and the courts have no power to inquire into the authority of the persons by whom it was entered into on behalf of the foreign nation: Doe v. Braden, 16 How. 635, 657; or the powers or rights recognized by it in the nation with which it was made: Maiden v. Ingersoll, 6 Mich. 373. A State law in conflict with it must give |
