STATE (Lat. stare, to place, establish) In Governmental Law. A body of persons united together in one coin munity for the defence of their rights and to do right and justice to foreigners. ln this sense, the state means the whole people united into one body politic ; and the state, and the people of the state, are equivalent expressions. 1 Pet. Cond. Rep. 37-39 ; 2 Dall. Penn. 425; 3 id. 93 ; 2 Wilson, Lect. 120 ; Dane, Appx.
50, p. 63 ; 1 Story, Const. 361. The positive or actual organization of the legis lative or judicial powers: thus, the actual government of the state is designated by the name of the state: hence the expression, the state has passed such a law or prohibited such an act. The section of territory occu pied by a state: as, the state of Pennsylvania.
One of the commonwealths which form the United States of America.
2. The constitution of the United States makes the following provisions in relation to the states. Art. 1, s. 9, 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. Art. 1, s. 10, 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera. tion ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in pay ment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post-facto law or law impairing the obligation of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. No state shall, without the consent of con gress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on' imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of congress. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agree ment or compact with another state, or with a .foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
3. The District of Columbia and the terri torial districts of the United States are not states within the meaning of the constitution and of the judiciary act, so as to enable a citizen thereof to sue a citizen of one of the states in the federal courts. 2 Crouch, .145 ; 1 Wheat. 91.
The se'veral states composing the United States are sovereign and independent in all things not surrendered to the national govern ment by the constitution, and are considered, on general principles, by each other as foreign states: yet their mutual relations are rather those of domestic independence than of for ' eign alienation. 7 Cranch, 481; 3 Wheat,
324; 1 Greenleaf, Ev. fi 489, 504.
See, generally, Mr. Madison's report in the legislature of Virginia, January, 1800; 1 Story, Const. 4 208 ; 1 Kent, Comm. 189, note b ; Curtis, Con st. • Sedgwick, Con st. Law ; Grotins, b. 1, c. 1, s. '14 ; id. b. 3, c. 3, s. 2 ; Burlamaqui, vol. 2, pt. 1, c. 4, s. 9 ; Vattel, b. 1, c. 1 ; 1 Toullier, n. 202, note 1 ; Cicero, de Respub. 1. 1, s. 25.
In Society. That quality which belongs to a person in society, and which secures to and Imposes upon bun different rights and ditties in consequence of the difference of that quality.
4. Although all men come from the hands of nature upon an equality, yet there are among them marked differences. The distinctions of the sexes, fathers and children, age and youth, ete. come from nature.
The eivil or municipal laws of each people have added to these natural qualities distinctions which are purely civil and arbitrary, founded on the manners of the people or in the will of the legis lature. Such are the differences which those laws have established between citizens and aliens) be tween magistrates and subjects, and between free men and slaves, and these which exist in some countries between nobles and plebeians, which differences are either unknown or contrary to natural law.
Although these latter distinctions are more par ticularly subject to the civil or municipal law, because to it they owe their origin, it nevertheless extends its authority over the natural qualities, not to destroy or to weaken them, but to confirm them and to render them more inviolable by positive rules and by certain maxims. This union of the civil or municipal and natural law forma among men a third species of differenoes, which may be called mixed, becauee they partiaipate of both, and derive their principles from nature and the perfection of the law : for example, infancy, or the privileges which belong to it, have their foundation in natural law ; but the age and the term of these prerogatives are determined by the civil or municipal law. Three sorts of different qualities which form the state or condition of men may, then, be distinguished: those which are purely natural, those purely civil, and those which are composed of the natural and civil or municipal law.
See 3 Blackstone, Comm. 396; I Toullier, n. 170, .71; CIVIL STATE.
In Practice. To make known specifically; to explain particularly: as, to state an account or to show the different items in an account ; to state the cause of action in a declaration.