of his Commentaries, says in regard to this element of nationality: "The Government of the United States was erected by the free voice and joint will of the people of America, for their common defence and general welfare. Its powers apply to those great interests which relate to this country in its national capacity, and which depend for their stability and protection on the consolidation of the Union. It is clothed with the principal attributes of political sovereignty, and it is justly deemed the guardian of our best rights, the source of our highest civil and political duties, and the sure means of national greatness. The constitution and jurisprudence of the United States deserve the most accurate examination; and an historical view of the rise and progress of the Union, and of the establishment of the present Constitution, as the necessary fruit of it, will tend to show the genius and value. of the government, and prepare the mind of the student for an investigation of its powers. "The association of the American people into one body politic, took place while they were colonies of the British empire, and owed allegiance to the British crown. That the union of this country was essential to its safety, its prosperity, and its greatness had been generally known, and frequently avowed long before the late revolution, or the claims of the British Parliament which produced it."? 2 Kent's Comm. (14th ed.), Lecture X., p. 202. and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.' The constitution is thus the law, and, moreover, the supreme law of the land. The constitutions of the separate states are their fundamental laws only in regard to those matters which are not submitted by the federal constitution to federal authority. This provision makes the constitution an integral part of the constitution of each state. If there is a conflict between them, then the provision of the state constitution opposed to the federal constitution is ipso facto null and void. All judges, and therefore, evidently, all other state officers, and all citizens of the state, are absolutely bound down to this fundamental principle. He who seeks to overthrow it lays hands on the fundamental law of the land. The federal government, which is bound to give the constitution life and being by law, is therefore not only empowered but directed to break down any opposition;—if possible, by the ordinary and peaceful powers of the state as provided by the constitution, but in case of need, by § 29. Samuel F. Miller's views.-One of the strongest expositions of the completeness of the sovereignty of the United States is found in Justice Samuel F. Miller's "Lectures on the Constitution," which have been annotated and published since his death by Mr. J. C. Bancroft Davis. This volume is recognized as a text-book of high authority on the interpretation of the Constitution; and justly so, as the author was often called upon judicially to construe it while he was a member of the Supreme Court, and the annotator has had the greatest opportunity of studying that instrument, and the interpretation thereof by the Supreme Court, during his term as its reporter, which has extended over a period represented by more than seventy volumes of the reports, and during which time he has prepared the headnotes of nearly every important decision on constitutional questions. In the notes to Lecture I. it is stated that, after the fall of British sovereignty, the broad functions of general government were assumed by the Continental Congress and exercised without question, even before the adoption of the Federal Constitution or the Articles of Confederation; that this state of facts existed while the Constitution was being framed, and continued after its adoption. As to these great natural powers of sovereignty, the notes say: "They were never enjoyed or exercised by the States separately, and, consequently, as an historic fact, independently of theory, could not have been retained when the States conferred upon the General Government the other enumerated powers." In speaking of the acceptance of the Northwest Territory, the declaration is made that the "sovereignty over it was vested in the United States as one undivided and independent nation. The simple truth is, the United States existed as a sovereign power from the necessities of the emergency."1 In 1867 Mr. Justice Miller pronounced the opinion of the Court in a case in which it was decided that no State had the right to tax railroad and stage companies for passengers carried out of the State, or for the privilege of passing through $ 29. 1 Miller's Lectures on the Constitution, pp. 38-58. force." The Constitutional Law of the United States by Dr. H. Von Holst, §§ 8-10, pp. 39-44. the State. He declined to concede that the question could be determined by the commerce clause of the Constitution but held that the tax was void because it interfered with National rights of the people of the United States. But although he was an ardent upholder of the sovereign powers of the National Government, Mr. Justice Miller never lost sight of the extensive powers of the States, or of the boundary line between Federal or National and State jurisdiction, as was evidenced by his far-reaching opinion in the Slaughterhouse cases which will be referred to at length hereafter.3 § 30. Justice Field's Opinion.-In 1889, Mr. Justice Field,1 after quoting these prior declarations of the court, declared that, "the United States formed for many and for important 2"The people of these United all its other offices; and this right States constitute one nation. They cannot be made to depend upon have a government in which all of the pleasure of a State over whose them are deeply interested. This territory they must pass to reach government has necessarily a cap- the point wherein these services ital established by law, where must be rendered. The governits principal operations are con-ment, also, has its offices of secondducted. Here sits its legislature, ary importance in all other parts composed of senators and repre- of the country. On the sea-coasts sentatives from the States and from and on the rivers it has its ports of the people of the States. Here entry. In the interior it has its resides the President, directing land offices, its revenue offices, and through thousands of agents, the its sub-treasuries. In all these it execution of the laws over all this demands the services of its citizens, vast country. Here is the seat of and is entitled to bring them to the supreme judicial power of the those points from all quarters of nation, to which all citizens have a the nation, and no power can exist right to resort to claim justice at its in a State to obstruct this right hands. Here are the great execu- that would not enable it to defeat tive departments, administering the purposes for which the governthe offices of the mails, of the ment was established." Crandall public lands, of the collection and vs. Nevada, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1867, distribution of the public revenues, 6 Wallace, 35, p. 43, MILLEr, J. and of our foreign relations. These are all established and conducted under the admitted powers of the Federal government. That government has a right to call to this point any or all of its citizens to aid in its service, as members of the Congress, of the courts, of the executive departments, and to fill 3 The Slaughter House Cases, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1872, 16 Wallace, 33, MILLER, J., and see § 357, Chapter XI. Vol. II, pp. 52, et seq. § 30. 1 Chae Chan Ping vs. United States, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1889, 130 U. S. 581, p. 604, FIELD, J. purposes a single nation." Continuing, that gifted jurist, who longer than any other justice of the Supreme Court, occupied a seat upon its bench, re-stated as the rule of the Court the views expressed by Chief Justice Marshall sixtyeight years before as follows: "In war, we are one people. In making peace we are one people. In all commercial regulations, we are one and the same people. In many other respects the American people are one, and the government which is alone capable of controlling and managing their interests in all these respects is the government of the Union. It is their government, and in that character they have no other. America has chosen to be, in many respects and to many purposes, a nation; and for all these purposes her government is complete. To all these objects it is competent. The people have declared, that in the exercise of all powers given for these objects, it is supreme. It can, then, in effecting these objects, legitimately control all individuals or governments within the American territory." There is a significance in the use of the word "American" throughout this declaration of unity, for by that name the people of this country are essentially known in their national, as distinguished from their federal, capacity. § 31. Views of Justices Gray and Bradley.-The same rule was reaffirmed in 1893 by Mr. Justice Gray, who, reiterating statements made by Mr. Justice Bradley,1 expressed the views of the court as follows: "The United States is not only a government, but a national government, and the only government in this country that has the character of nationality. It is vested with power over all the foreign relations of the country, war, peace and negotiations, and intercourse with other nations, all of which are forbidden to the State governments-for local interests the several states of our Union exist, but for international relations, with for 2 Cohens vs. Virginia, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1821, 6 Wheaton, 264, p. 413, MARSHALL, Ch. J. 8 See also opinion of Justice FIELD, sustaining the jurisdiction of United States Consular Courts in foreign countries: In re Ross, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1891, 140 U. S. 453, and referred to at length § 379, 1 Knox vs. Lee, (Legal-tender cases) U. S. Sup. Ct. 1870, 12 Wallace, 457, p. 455, BRADLEY, J. eign powers we are but one people, one nation, one power.2 The United States are a sovereign and independent nation, and are vested by the Constitution with the entire control of international relations, and with all the power of government necessary to maintain their control and to make it effective. The only government in this country which other governments recognize, or treat with, is the government of the Union. The only American flag known throughout the world is the flag of the United States. The Constitution speaks with no uncertain sound upon this subject." 3 Mr. Justice Gray has also expressed the opinion of the Supreme Court as to the power of the United States to exercise the natural functions of sovereignty not referred to expressly in the Constitution, but which are exercisable because it is a nation, and its Government must, therefore, be a sovereign power endowed with every element of nationality and sovereignty.* Judge Gray's opinion in the Fong Yue Ting case was referred to in a speech recently made by Senator O. H. Platt, of Connecticut, an extract from which is quoted in the notes.5 2 Following Chae Chan Ping vs. | to the American people that the United States, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1889, 130 U. S. 581, p. 606, FIELD, J. 3 Fong Yue Ting vs. United States, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1893, 149 U. S. 698, pp. 705-707, GRAY, J. 4 Nishimura Ekiu VS. United States, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1891, 142 U. S. 651, GRAY, J. Jones vs. United States, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1890, 137 U. S. 202, GRAY, J. 5 December 19, 1898 (Cong. Record, p. 288, et. seq., and see numerous authorities referred to), after quoting from Judge Gray's opinion, Senator Platt continued in regard to the nationality of the United States as follows: "The doctrine was denied by Hayne. It was triumphantly asserted by Webster in his great debate in which he first made it plain United States lacked no element of "But Mr. President, it has been h |