$164. The general government having authority to make treaties of every character and nature essential to the well-being and harmony of the nation in its intercourse with other nations; having power to bind the nation by its compacts and agreements in that respect; to borrow money, if necessary to fulfill its engagements; to regulate commercial intercourse with them; to send to, and receive from them, ministers plenipotentiary; to appoint consuls, etc., and also having authority to declare war, and to make all necessary provisions for carrying it on; to conclude peace, and to adjust the rights of the parties by requiring or granting such conditions as are essential to that end; has all the powers and authority essential to external national administration; all, in that respect, that any national government can have, or exercise.1

$165. In the institution of the national government it was necessary to provide for an INTERNAL NATIONAL administration. The national citizens had rights and interests common to them as members of the nation, which required the favor and protection of a common government. Within the territorial limits of the nation were existing thirteen state governments. They had been instituted by their respective inhabitants for purposes of local administration. But while the state government was intrusted with the exercise of the authority of the people within its limits, it could exercise no authority beyond. As a state merely, the people had no authority outside its limits. For as state citizens only, they had no national status.

$166. The government of Massachusetts was never a national government. A mere citizen of Massachusetts had no nationality. It was only when state lines disappeared, and the citizens of all the states stood shoulder to shoulder as members of one society, with a common interest and a common country, that nation

whole nation. But all rulers of states have not power to make public treaties on their own authority alone; some are obliged to take the advice of a senate, or of the representatives of the nation. It is from the fundamental laws of each state-nation - that we must learn where resides the authority that is capable of contracting with validity in the name of the state." (Vattel, § 154.) 1 It is difficult to conceive of any authority or power essential to the external administration between sovereign and independent nations, which is not granted in the constitution, to be exercised by the general government. Every sort of compact or agreement necessary to adjust their rights and interests in time of peace, can be entered into by the general government, and made binding upon the nation; and when war threatens, the government can invoke and command the power of the nation; can command and apply the means necessary for raising and equipping the land and naval forces; can marshal and lead them against the enemy; in short, can do everything necessary to be done in war and peace.

ality attached to them. As such, they declared their common independence. As such, they unitedly achieved that independence, and were unitedly recognized as ONE NATION.1

$167. As soon as the people of the states had united as one people, to achieve their common independence, and to establish themselves as a sovereign and independent nation, they became members of the new nation; and having established a common or national government, they became the citizens of that government; and hence, had a double citizenship: to wit, a national, and a state citizenship. As members of the nation, their rights, interests and authority extended over the national domain, and throughout the entire territorial limits of the nation. Their representatives and senators were to legislate for the whole nation. As members of the state, their rights, interests and powers were limited to their respective states. Their laws had no binding authority outside their respective limits.

$ 168. Inasmuch as the citizens of the general government about to be instituted, were likewise citizens of the several states, in providing for the internal administration of the national government, it became necessary, either to absorb the governmental powers of the states, and institute but one consolidated government for them all, or to continue the state governments in the exercise of their authority and powers over local and domestic matters; and to confer upon the general government jurisdiction and authority over matters pertaining to them as members of the nation, and citizens of its government.

$169. The interests of the citizen of the state government, and of the citizen of the national government, were not adverse, but were in harmony. The citizen of the state was likewise a citizen of the nation; having national rights and interests superadded to his local rights and interests; and he sought favor and protection in the exercise and enjoyment of both classes of rights and interests. The state, as such, could administer only in local matters; could provide only for local or state interests. Therefore the general government

1 But Georgia cannot be viewed as a single, unconnected sovereign power, on whose legislature no other restrictions are imposed than may be found in its own constitntion. She is a part of a large empire. She is a member of the American union, and the union has a constitution, the supremacy of which all acknowledge, and which imposes limits to the legislatures of the several states which none claim a right to pass." (Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 136; see also 9 Wheat., 187; 5 id., 514; 6 id., 414; 12 id., 334; 2 Pet., 590.)

became a necessity, notwithstanding the existence and authority of the state governments.1

$ 170. Therefore in providing for the internal administration of the general government, and yet permitting the state governments to continue in the exercise of governmental authority over matters of a local and domestic character, it became necessary that the powers committed to the general government to be exercised by it, and those which were to remain to be exercised by the state governments, should be distinguished the one from the other, to avoid conflict of jurisdiction and authority, in the practical administration of the same, over the same people and within the same territorial limits.

$171. The authority and powers to be exercised by the two governments could be generally distinguished, by giving to the general government authority over matters and subjects of a national character; and to the state governments, authority over matters purely local and domestic.2 But such definition standing alone, would not be sufficiently certain to avoid constant conflict of jurisdiction. For there are a large class of interests common to the state and national citizen. It therefore became necessary in the institution of the general government, to define very clearly the powers intrusted to its exercise, leaving the unenumerated powers essential to the government of the state, to be exercised by the state governments.

$172. The people, in the institution of the general government, and in the endowment of it with authority to exercise the powers specified and implied in the grant, did not make it residuary in character, as they did the state governments; for the plain reason, that it was comparatively easy to enumerate the powers essential to a purely national administration; while there

1

"The political character of the several states of this union in relation to each other is this: For all national purposes the states and citizens thereof are one, united under the same sovereign authority and governed by the same laws. In all other respects, the states are necessarily foreign to, and independent of, each other.' (2 Pet., 590; 10 id., 579; 12 Wheat., 334.) "The national and state system are to be regarded as one whole." (6 Wheat., 419.) "In America, the powers of sovereignty are divided between the government of the union, and those of the states. They are each sovereign with respect to the objects committed to it; and neither sovereign with respect to the objects committed to the other." (4 Wheat., 410.)

"For all national purposes, the states and the citizens thereof, are one; united under the same sovereign authority, and governed by the same laws. In all other respects the states are necessarily foreign to, and independent of, each other." * The states retain their individual sovereignties, and with respect to their municipal regulations, are to each other sovereign." (2 Pet., 500; 10 id., 579.)

would be no limits to the detail of powers essential to a proper administration in respect to subjects of a local and domestic character.

$173. The national and state governments, then, are neither of them primary, in respect to each other. They are each corporate institutions created by the authority of the people, for specific purposes only. Each are intrusted with the exercise of such authority and powers as the people have ordained; and each are prohibited from the exercise of certain other powers. Hence, in the tenth amendment of the constitution of the United States, the people are recognized as possessing powers not intrusted to the exercise of either the general or state governments.1

$174. The general and state governments are each intrusted with the exercise of governmental authority properly belonging to the department of internal administration. That is, in a nation where there are no other governments than the general or national one, to administer in local matters, or in matters pertaining to the intercourse of one citizen or inhabitant with the other, and in respect to the rights and duties arising out of that intercourse, the internal administration of the nation embraces these subjects, here committed to the jurisdiction of the states. And the difference between such a nation and the United States as a nation, consists mainly in the division or distribution of the subjects of internal national administration between the general and state governments; giving to the general government jurisdiction over a certain enumerated class of these subjects; and giving to the state governments jurisdiction over what remains of them.

$175. Such, then, is the structure of the government of the United States, including both the general and state governments. As institutions, neither of them possess any original or inherent authority. They are merely the corporate agents of the people, authorized to exercise the powers committed to their trust in the manner and for the purposes ordained by the people. The general government holds its powers in trust for the people of the nation, and it is administered by the will of the nation, without respect to state lines. The national citizen of New York, by his representatives

1 "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." (10th Amendment of the Const. U. S.)

and senators in congress, legislates for every part of the nation; and so in respect to the national citizens of the other states. But the people of each state, as state citizens, administer only within the limits of their respective states, in matters pertaining to local and domestic interests alone.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES-
ITS PREAMBLE.

$176. The constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people, for the purpose of instituting a national government to be intrusted with the exercise of national authority over all subjects committed to its jurisdiction, to the end that the defense of the nation might be provided for, and its welfare secured.1

$177. "This leads to an inquiry into the origin of this government, and the sources of its power. Whose agent is it? Is it the creature of the state legislatures, or the creature of the people? If the government of the United States be the agent of the state governments, then they may control it, provided they can agree in the manner of controlling it; if it be the agent of the people, then the people alone can control it, restrain it, modify or reform it. Is it the

servant of four-and-twenty masters of different wills, and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all? This absurdity arises from a misconception as to the origin of this government in its true character. It is the people's constitution, the people's government; made for the people, and answerable to the people."

1"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.' (Preamble to Const. U. S.)

Webster in reply to Hayne, Jan. 27, 1830, in the U. S. Senate. Debates in Congress, vol. 6, pt. 1, p. 74.

"To the formation of a league, such as was the confederation, the state Sovereignties were certainly competent. But when, in order to form a more perfect union, it was deemed necessary to change the alliance into an effective government. possessing great and sovereign powers, and acting directly on the people, the necessity of referring it to the people, and of deriving its powers directly from them, was felt and acknowledged by all." (4 Wheat., 404.)

"The constitution of the United States was ordained and established, not by the states in their sovereign capacities, but emphatically, as the preamble of