"ate three supremacies; one a supremacy of the constitution; "another, of the laws of the United States; and a third of "the treaty-making power." It is hard or impossible to serve two masters only. The court has turned the federal and state governments into sovereignties, and placed over all, three supremacies. The difficulties of such a system would be insurmountable: whereas, by acknowledging one master only, in the sovereignty of the people, and confessing the obligation of the political departments created by that sovereignty, to move within the orbits assigned to them, as great a degree of order may ensue, united with liberty, as is attainable by human wisdom.

Are these supremacies of co-ordinate and equal power; or are laws and treaties subordinate to the constitution ? The constitution, the laws and the treaties are all declared to be the supreme law of the land, and therefore, as it could not have been designed to bestow on laws, an authority equal to the authority of the constitution, no construction can be correct, which does not sustain both the superiority of the constitution over laws, and also a perfect equality as to the obligations imposed by the supremacy declared; and such a construction is I think quite visible. The supremacy is not bestowed upon the federal government. It is a moral and not a personal supremacy which is established. It was not intended to confer on one department, sphere, sovereignty, or organization of persons, any superiority over another department, sphere, sovereignty, or organization of persons; and was merely a declaration of the respect to which the recited moral beings were equally entitled. The constitution cannot be personified, so as to be reduced to a supreme body politick distinct from the people; and if laws are to be personified by congress, and treaties by the president and senate, their supremacy would either be of a different nature from the supremacy of the constitution, or these two departments, neither of which, nor both constitute the federal government, would be made supreme over the federal and state governments, and equal to the supremacy of the people, if they are to be considered as the representatives of the supremacy of the constitution. But as no additional personal or national power was conferred by declaring the constitution to be the supreme law of the land,

it proves that no additional personal or spherical power was conferred by declaring the laws and treaties to be also the supreme law of the land. The declaration, that the constitution was the supreme law, confirmed all its limitations, divisions, restrictions and limitations of power, and it never was intended that either should be altered in the least degree by laws or treaties, or be placed under the power of those who should make laws or treaties. On the contrary, the laws were to be made in pursuance of the constitution, and the treaties, under the authority of the United States. The United States have no authority, except that which is given by the constitution. Both the laws and treaties to be supreme must, therefore, be made in conformity with the powers bestowed, limited and reserved by the constitution, and by these we must determine whether a law or a treaty has been constitutionally made, before the question of its supremacy can occur. The judges are expressly referred to, as the curators or executors of this moral supremacy, and no other department is by the least hint recognized, as being able to impair or enforce it. And finally, all officers, legislative, executive and judicial, take an oath to support the constitution, which is a moral sanction in favour of a moral system; and none take an oath to acknowledge any species of personal or spherical supremacy. This clause then amounts to no more, than that the constitution shall be the supreme law of the land. As proceeding from the sovereignty of the people, the highest political authority, the term was proper; because it was paramount and supreme over whatever should proceed from any inferior authority; and as the constitution embraced our whole system of government, both state and federal, by delegating and reserving powers, the supremacy bestowed on it was intended equally and coextensively to protect and secure the powers delegated to the federal government, and those reserved to the states. In this construction of the word "supreme," the court itself has literally concurred, in asserting "that it would be its duty to "declare an unconstitutional law void." The right of doing this arises from the supremacy of the constitution over law; from the restriction it imposes upon political departments or spheres to confine themselves within their limited orbits; and from its intention that each department or sphere should

controul another, if it trangresses its boundary. Upon this ground the court has asserted this constitutional power in its own sphere. It can be defended upon no other; because the constitution does not say, that their judgments shall be the supreme law of the land. If the ground be solid in relation to the judicial sphere, it is equally solid in relation to the limited federal and state spheres. If the legislative federal sphere have no supreme power over the judicial federal sphere; because its power is limited by the constitution, and not extended beyond these limitations by the clause of the constitution under consideration; it follows, that neither the federal nor state spheres derive any supremacy over the other from the same clause, whilst acting within their limited boundaries.

In fact, the opinion of the court admits the soundness of this construction, though it qualifies the admission by an unexplained ambiguity, which ingeniously keeps the question out of sight. "It is a question of supremacy." But it does not explain what this supremacy is, nor how far it extends. "It is of the very "essence of supremacy to remove all obstacles to its action "within its own sphere." By the words "within its own sphere" the court seems to admit, that a sphere ought to act within the boundaries prescribed to it, without suffering any hindrance from another sphere. This is all for which I contend; and if this be allowed (and it must be allowed to justify the judicial sphere in annulling an unconstitutional law of congress,) then neither the federal nor state spheres whilst acting within their spheres, are subjected to the impediments of the other, and each has a right to controul such impediments. But then the court produce the ambiguity by adding, that a supreme sphere may "so modify every power vested in "subordinate governments, as to exempt its own operations " from their influence." It is useless to concede principles if they can be evaded. The court had previously admitted that the federal and state governments were "both sovereign with "respect to the objects committed to them, and neither sove"reign with respect to the objects committed to the other;" but now it takes it for granted, that the federal sphere is supreme, the state spheres subordinate, and that in consequence of this supremacy and subordinacy, the federal government has a right "so to modify every power vested in the

"state governments, as to exempt its own operations from "their influence."

Power in the exercise of verbal construction, and in deducing inferences from particular phrases, like a fine lady admiring a casket of jewels, very easily discovers whatever it wishes for, to be right, convenient, useful and necessary. Particular texts are often tortured to appease conscience, or to gratify prejudice; and good or bad intentions are equally fertile in expedients for surmounting obstacles. A single word is often so indefinite, that its meaning is controuled by another. A single sentence may generally be twisted into an enmity with principles plainly asserted, in any book; but the defects of language do not equally extend to an entire treatise. Thus the imperfections of isolated words and sentences, and the frailties of mankind unite to teach us, that the licentiousness of construction can only be controuled by an impartial estimate of a whole, and a candid comparison of its parts. If the reader shall examine the federal constitution by this rule, and should discover that it delegates a power to the federal government "so to modify every power vested in the state governments as "to exempt its own operations from their influence," he must conclude, that the decision of the court, founded upon the existence of this power in the federal government, is correct; but if the constitution invests the federal government with no such power, then it follows, that this decision, founded upon a supposition that it did, must be unconstitutional. This is in fact the very essence of the question; as interferences by the federal or state governments with powers delegated to the other, are in truth modifications of those powers; and it is extremely important to ascertain, whether a power so enormous and unspecified is common to both, or exclusively conferred upon the former. The latter is asserted by the court for the purpose of modifying the state right of taxation; by those members of congress who supported a bill for prohibiting slavery in a particular state, and is the ground upon which alone all interfering with the police of states can be defended.

It will be allowed, that the people of each state had, and exercised the right of modifying the powers vested in the state governments. If the federal government now have it, the most unexpected consequences will ensue. The people can no

longer exercise the right, because they have given it away. If it be a concurrent right, should they exercise it, the federal government may re-modify their modifications. The state governments will be responsible either to the federal government singly, or both to this government and the people for their conduct. It was quite idle to reserve to the state governments the powers previously bestowed, if they were at the same time subjected to the subsequent modifications of the federal government. And the meditated check upon the federal government by the powers reserved to the state governments would be equally insignificant. These consequences of the construction given to the word "supreme" by the court, so completely subversive of the essential principles of our system of government, are a sufficient exposition of its incorrectness.

But the argument becomes stronger, when we resort to the provisions of the constitution. I shall venture to test the position relied on by the court, by the mode before practised of confronting it with a contradictory position; so that one or the other must be disallowed. It is a question of supremacy; the constitution has invested the states with a complete, and the state governments with a limited supremacy, over the federal government, and expressly subjected its operations to the influence of the latter, in sundry important instances. The states by common consent may dissolve or modify the union, over which, by the natural right of self-government, which they have never relinquished, they retain a complete supremacy. By the constitution, the state governments are invested with the rights of appointing senators and electors of a president, for the very purpose of influencing the operations of the federal government for their own security. They may forbear to exercise this right, and thus dissolve the federal government. They may elect the members of the house of representatives by a general ticket, and thereby very considerably influence its operations. They may compel congress to call a convention. They may ratify changes of the federal government, without its consent. They may affirm or reject amendments proposed by congress. They have a concurrent right of internal taxation with the federal government, and these concurrent rights may deeply influence each other; and they are exclusively invested with the appointment of all the officers of that force,