Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/245

 CH. I.] the same time providing for their more domestic concerns by state conventions, and other temporary arrangements. From the crown of Great Britain the sovereignty of their country passed to the people of it; and it was then not an uncommon opinion, that the unappropriated lands, which belonged to that crown, passed, not to the people of the colony or stales, within whose limits they were situated, but to the whole people. On whatever principle this opinion rested, it did not give way to the other; and thirteen sovereignties were considered as emerging from the principles of the revolution, combined by local convenience and considerations The people, nevertheless, continued to consider themselves, in a national point of view, as one people; and they continued without interruption to manage their national concerns accordingly." In Penhallow v. Doane, (3 Dall. R. 54, ) Mr. Justice Patterson (who was also a revolutionary statesman) said, speaking of the period before the ratification of the confederation: "The powers of congress were revolutionary in their nature, arising out of events adequate to every national emergency, and co-extensive with the object to be attained. Congress was the general, supreme, and controlling council of the nation, the centre of the union, the centre of force, and the sun of the political system. Congress raised armies, fitted out a navy, and prescribed rules for their government, &c. &c. These high acts of sovereignty were submitted to, acquiesced in, and approved of by the people of America, &c. &c. The danger being imminent and common, it became necessary for the people or colonies to coalesce and act in concert, in order to divert, or break the violence of the gathering