PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. IN preparing the work of which the third edition is now offered to the public, the principal purpose of the author was to furnish for general readers, for colleges, law schools, and other higher seminaries, and for the legal profession, a book adapted to their present wants and based upon the principles of constitutional interpretation which have been settled by the civil war and by the political events that followed it. Although, as the name indicates, it is an Introduction and does not purport to be an absolutely exhaustive treatise, yet all the purely constitutional questions which have at any time been passed upon by the highest national tribunal, are discussed and the results thereof are stated. In respect to some of these topics, where there has been a conflict of opinion between the federal and the state courts, or where the relative powers of the national and state governments have been somewhat undefined and uncertain, the treatment has been designedly made more full and minute. Among the more important of these topics are the powers of taxing and of regulating commerce, the military powers, the executive powers, the rights of citizenship, and state laws impairing the obligation of contracts. The work is thus intended for use as a text-book by the courts and the bar. In determining the principles which underlie all others, in reference to the nature of the United States as a body politic and of its Constitution, an attempt has been made to construct a harmonious system of interpretation founded, not upon theoretical and a priori speculations, but upon historical facts, which shall at the same time recognize and uphold the nationality and absolute sovereignty of the United States and the supremacy of its government, and also maintain the essential exist ence and rights of the several states as necessary elements of the political order established by the one People in the Constitution which they adopted. While, therefore, the whole civil structure, federal and state, is made to rest upon the nationality and sovereignty of the United States, the construction that is advocated guards with equal care against any tendencies towards an undue centralization of power, and upholds the sacred principle of local self-government as the very groundwork of all civil and political liberty. The text of the present edition has been carefully revised and corrected; and whatever errors of fact or inaccuracies of statement had been discovered have been removed. An Appendix has also been added, which contains an abstract of all the decisions involving an interpretation of the Constitution, rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States since the publication of the first edition. The Public Law of the land authoritatively declared by the highest tribunal, is thus presented as it stands at the present day. The subject matter of this Appendix is arranged in an order conforming to that pursued in the body of the work, with appropriate subdivisions and headings, so that it can be easily referred to in connection with the discussions found in the original text. The additions thus made embrace many subjects of the highest theoretical and practical importance; among others, the nature of the Federal Union and its relations with the States, the status of citizenship with the rights and immunities of citizens, the interpretation of the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth amendments, the regulation of inter-state commerce, the extent and limits of the national and the state powers of taxation, and the questions thus raised and determined, equal in magnitude and in their far-reaching effect any that were ever before passed upon by the national court of ultimate resort. August, 1875. J. N. P. Public Law divided into Political and International . Elementary idea of the "State" and of "Sovereignty " What included in Political Law WHAT IS THE CONSTITUTION, AND BY WHOM WAS IT CREATED: The United States is a nation and is sovereign : The separate states are not nations and not sovereign SECTION I.- PERIOD PRIOR TO THE CONFEDERATION. Declaration of Independence, its authors, and its effects Sovereign states cannot limit their sovereignty Opinion of modern publicists in reference to last proposition General description of these articles, and of the movements which Abstract of Articles of Confederation Articles of Confederation not a fundamental law Controlling ideas embodied in them. I. No United States Citizenship. Formative elements were states. II. Articles acted upon States and not Individuals IV. Limited extent of the powers granted to the Congress. SECTION III.-PROCEEDINGS WHICH DIRECTLY LED TO THE ADOPTION OF THE A remedy necessary; an amendment to the Articles of Confedera- Call of Convention by Congress, to amend Articles of Confederation Meeting of Convention in 1787; did not do what they were called Meaning of these proceedings; nature of the acts of the state gov- ernments in submitting the Constitution to the people The theory of the government is involved in this proposition Illustrations from French and from English history Various powers held by a government; the people may wield all SECTION II. THE IMPORTANT AND DISTINCTIVE NATIONAL ELEMENTS IN THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF; IN THE ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE GOV- National character of the Preamble Preamble of the Confederate Constitution, compared 2. The Enacting Clauses. The powers of the agent cannot exceed those of the principal The supremacy belongs to judge-made as well as to enacted law Interpretation of the IXth and Xth amendments |