Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/287

 CH. IV.] are both indispensable. If there is in each state a court of final jurisdiction, there may be as many different final determinations on the same point, as there are courts. There are endless diversities in the opinions of men. We often see not only different courts, but the judges of the same court differing from each other. To avoid the confusion, which would unavoidably result from the contradictory decisions of a number of independent judicatories, all nations have found it necessary to establish one tribunal paramount to the rest, possessing a general superintendence, and authorized to settle and declare, in the last resort, an uniform rule of justice."

§ 267. "This is the more necessary, where the frame of government is so compounded, that the laws of the whole are in danger of being contravened by the laws of the parts, &c. The treaties of the United States, under the present confederation, are liable to the infractions of thirteen different legislatures, and as many different courts of final jurisdiction, acting under the authority of these legislatures. The faith, the reputation, the peace of the whole Union, are thus continually at the mercy of the prejudices, the passions, and the interests of every member, of which these are composed. Is it possible, under such circumstances, that foreign nations can either respect, or confide in such a government? Is it possible, that the people of America will longer consent to trust their honour, their happiness, their safety, on so precarious a foundation?" It might have been added, that the rights of individuals, so far as they depended upon acts or authorities derived from the confederation, were liable to the same difficulties, as the rights of other nations dependent upon treaties.