FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. A union or confederation of sovereign states, created either by treaty, or by the mutual adoption of a federal constitution, for the purpose of presenting to the world the appearance of a single state, while retaining the rights and power of internal regulation and administra tion, or at least of local self-government.
The more extended the renunciation of individual sovereignty, the more powerful does the new gov ernment become and the more nearly does it ap proach to a substantial union. No real diminution of sovereignty ie necessarily involved except the relinquishment of the power of conducting inde pendent relations with foreign powers.
"There are two different modes of organizing a federal union. The federal authorities may repre sent the governments solely, and their acts may be obligatory only on the governments as such, or they may have the power of enacting laws and issuing orders which are binding directly on Individual citi zens. The former is the plan lot the (old) German so-called confederation, and of the Swiss constitu tion previous to 1847. It was tried in America for a few years immediately following the war of inde pendence. The other principle is that of the exist ing constitution of the United States, and has been adopted within the last dozen years by the Swiss confederacy. The federal congress of the American union is a substantive part of the government of every individual state. Within the limits of its at tributions, it makes laws which are obeyed by every citizen individually, executes them through its own officers, and enforces them by its own tribunals. This is the only principle which has been found, or which is even likely to produce an effective federal government. A union between the governments only is a mere alliance, and subject to all contin gencies which render alliances precarious." Mills, Representative Government 301.
A primary difficulty, it has been said, In framing a federal government and a source of danger to its permanence, Is liability to disagreements between the constituent governments or between one or more of the local .governmente and the federal govern ment as to the limits of their respective powers. The scheme adopted in the American system 'as a provision for such cases has been thus described: "Under the more perfect mode of federation, where every citizen of each partioulav state owes obedi ence to two governments-that of his own state, and that of the federation-it is evidently necessary not only that the constitutional limits of the author ity of each should be precisely and clearly defined, but that the power to decide between them in any case of dispute should not reside in either of the governments, or in any functionary subject to it, but in an umpire independent of both. There must
be a supreme court of justice, and a system of sub ordinate courts in every state of the union, before whom such questions shall be carried, and whose judgment on them, in the last stage of appeal, shall be final. Every state of the union, and the federal government itself, as well as every functionary of each, must be liable to be sued in those courts for exceeding. their powers, or for non-performance of their federal duties, and must in general be obliged to employ those courts as the instruments for en forcing their federal rights. This involves the re markable consequence, actually realized in the United States, that a court of justice, the highest federal tribunal, is supreme over the various gov ernments, both state and federal, having the right to declare that any new law made, or act done by them, exceeds the powers assigned to them by the federal constitution, and in consequence has no legal validity." "The tribunals which act as um pires between the federal and state governments naturally also decide all disputes between two states, or between a citizen of one state and the government of another. The usual remedies be tween nations, war and diplomacy, being precluded by the federal union, it is necessary that a judicial remedy should supply the place. The supreme court of the federation dispenses international law, and is the first great example of what ie now one of the most prominent wants of civilized society, a real in ternational tribunal." Id. 305. See Freeman, Fed. Gov't.
The American union Is the most striking illustra tion of federal government in existence, and its permanent character was settled by the civil war which finally determined its indestructibility by ac tion of individual states. In Europe, the empire of Germany and the republic of Switzerland are instances of the operation of successful federal governments, as are most of the South American States ; while in the British Empire the Dominion of Canada, the Australian federation, and South Africa, as also the Greater Republic of Cen tral America, are indications of a tendency in that direction which existing conditions are likely to increase very rapidly. See these several titles, and also UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; GOVERNMENT.