The United States have certain powers, the principal of which are enumerated in art. 1, 8, running into seventeen specific powara. Others are granted to particular branches of the government: as, the treaty-making power to the president and senate. These have ao equal effect in all the states, and so far aa an authority is vested in the govern ment of the Union or in any department of it, and ao far aa the states are prohibited from the exercise of certain powers, so far in our domestio affairs wa are a unity.
Within these granted powers the sovereignty of the United States is supreme. The constitution, and the laws made in pursuance of it, and all treaties, are the supreme law of the land. Art. 6. And they not only govern in their words, but in their meaning. If the aensa is ambiguous or dcobtful, the United States, through their courts, in ill cases where the rights of an individual are coo cerned, are the rightful expositors. For with om the authority of explaining this meaning the United Statea would not be sovereign.
4. In these matters, particularly in the limita tion put on the sovereignty or the states, it has been sometime° aaid that the constitution executes itself. This expression may be allowed; but with as much propriety these may be said to be laws which the people have enacted themselves, and no laws of congress can either take from, add to, or confirm them. They are righta, privilegaa, or im munities which are granted by the people, and are beyond the power of oongress or state legislatures; and they require no law to give them force or afficieney. The members of congress are exempted from arrest, except for treason, felony, and breach of the peace, in going to and veturning from the seat of government. Art. 1, 6. It is obvious that no law can affect this immunity. On these subjects all laws are purely nugatory, because if they go beyond or fall short of the provisions of the constitution, that may always be appealed to. An individual has just what thaat gives him,—no less and no more. It may be laid down as a universal rule, admitting of no exception, that when the constitution has established a disability or im munity. a privilege or a right, these are precisely as that instrument has fixed them, and can be neithe, augmented nor curtailed by ony act or law either of oongress or a state legislature. We are moro particular in stating this principle because it has sometimes been forgotten both bylegislatures and theoretical expositors of the constitution. It has been justly thought a matter of import &nee to determine from what source the United States derive their authority. 4 Wheat. 402. Wheo the constitution was framed, the people of this country were not an unformed mass of individuals. They were united into regular communities under state governments, and to these had confided the whole mass of sovereign power which they chose to intrust out of their own hands. The question here proposed is whether our bond of union is a compact entered into hy the states, or the coostitu tion is an organie law established by the people. To this question the preamble gives a decisive answer ; We, the people, ordain and establish this constitution. Th8 members of the convention which formed it ware indeed appointed hy the states. But
the government of the states had only a daegated power, and, if they had an inclinatiob, had no au thority to transfer the allegiance of the people from one sovereign to another. The great men who formed this oonstitution were sensible of, this want of power, and recommended it to the people themselves. They assembled in their own con ventions and adopted it, acting in their original capacity as individuals, and not as representing states. The state governments are passed by in silence. They had no part in making it, and, though they have certain duties to perform, as, the ap pointment of senators, are properly not parties to it. The people in their capacity as sovereign made and adopted it; and it binds the state governments without their consent. The United States as a whole, therefore, emanates from the people, and not from the states, and the constitution and laws of the states, whether made before or since the adop tion of that of the United States, ere subordinate to it and the laws made in pursuance of it. 5. It has very truly been said that out of the mass of sovereignty intrusted to the stades was oarved part_and deposited with the United States. But this was taken by the people, and not by the states as organized oommunities. The people are the fountain of sovereignty. The whole was ori ginally with them as their own. The state govern ments were but trustees acting under a derived au thority, and had no power to delegate what was delegated to them, But the people, as the'original fountain, might take away what they had lent and intrust it to whom they pleased. They had the whole title, and, as absolute proprietors, had the right of using or abusing,—jus utendi et abutendi. A consequence of great importance flows from this fact. The laws of the United States act direcUy on individuals, and they are directly and not mediately responsible through the state gov ernments. This is the most important improve ment made by our constitution over all previous confederacies. As a corollary from this, if not more properly a part af it, the laws act only on states through individuals. They are supreme over per golas and cases, but do not touch the states but through them. 1 Wheat. 368. If a state passes an ex poet facto law, or passes a law impairing the obligation of contracts, or makes any thing but gold or silver a tender in payment of debts, con gress passes no law which touches the state : it is sufficient that these laws are void, and when a case is brought before court it, without any law of con gress, vvill declare them void. They give no per son an immunity, nor deprive any of a right. Again : should a state pass a law declaring war against a foreign nation, grant letters of marque and reprisals, arm troops or keep ships of war in time uf peace, individuals acting under such laws would be responsible to the United States. They might be tleated and punished as traitors or pirates. But congress would and could pass no law against thcratate; and for,this simple reason, because the state is sovereign. And it is a maxim consecrated in public law ea well as common sense and the necessity of the case, that a sovereign is answer able for his Hots ooly to his Goal and to his own conscience.