Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/162

146 146 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. If this act would be cause for national complaint, or for war, if done by one foreign nation to another, then the doing of it by one State of this Union to the injury of the people or land of a sister State, is a violation of the Constitution of the United States. The Federal Constitution impliedly prohibits such aggressions by one State or its citizens upon another State or its citizens as would afford just cause for governmental complaint if the two States were each independent nations, — such aggressions as would between distinct sovereignties constitute an international grievance, and, if persisted in, afford cause for war. The different States, by assent- ing to the Constitution, and becoming members of the Federal Union, impliedly agree not to do any acts to the injury of each other, or to the injury of the people of each other, which would violate the rules of international law. The States give up the right to vindicate their respective claims by war, or to settle them^ without the consent of Congress, by interstate treaties. As a substitute for the rights of the States to resort to war, a system of common judicial tribunals is established to adjudicate their contro- versies, and the controversies between their respective citizens. In construing the Constitution, we may reason " from its spirit, and from the general character of the nationality implied all through its separate parts, — as in its avowed purpose to form a more per- fect union and insure domestic tranquillity, in its prohibition of [ war and ] subordinate alliances among the States, in its refer- ence of every controversy between them to the judicial branch of the united government. " In 108 U. S. p. 90, Waite, C. J., said : " All the rights of the States as independent nations were sur- rendered to the United States. The States are not nations, either as between themselves or towards foreign nations. They are sov- ereign within their spheres, but their sovereignty stops short of nationality. Their political status at home and abroad is that of States in the United States. They can neither make war nor peace without the consent of the national government. Neither can they, except with like consent, enter into any agreement or compact with another State. Art. L, Sec. 10, cl. 3. "^ The statutes of the States are not the supreme law of the land within their respective limits. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. " The mandate of the State affords no justification for the invasion of rights secured by the ' See also i Hare, Const'l Law, pp. 1 5, 1 6, p. 52 ; Pomeroy, Const'l Law, 9th ed., s.43.