Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/320

 280 whom, and in what manner may it be dissolved? Who are to determine its validity and construction? Who are to decide upon the supposed infractions and violations of it? These are questions often asked, and often discussed, not merely for the purpose of theoretical speculation; but as matters of practical importance, and of earnest and even of vehement debate. The answers given to them by statesmen and jurists are often contradictory, and irreconcilable with each other; and the consequences, deduced from the views taken of some of them, go very deep into the foundations of the government itself, and expose it, if not to utter destruction, at least to evils, which threaten its existence, and disturb the just operation of its powers.

§ 309. It will be our object to present in a condensed form, some of the principal expositions, which have been insisted on at different times, as to the nature and obligations of the constitution, and to offer some of the principal objections, which have been suggested against those expositions. To attempt a minute enumeration would, indeed, be an impracticable task; and considering the delicate nature of others, which are still the subject of heated controversy, where the ashes are scarcely yet cold, which cover the concealed fires of former political excitements, it is sufficiently difficult to detach some of the more important from the mass of accidental matter, in which they are involved.

§ 310. It has been asserted by a learned commentator, that the constitution of the United States is an original, written, federal, and social compact, freely, voluntarily, and solemnly entered into by the several