Page:Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson.djvu/82

 IX.

, January 19, 1833.

the author of this Proclamation had asserted, that the several States, by the Federal Constitution, had parted with much of their power, jurisdiction and authority, he would have asserted a fact, that no one ever has or probably ever will deny; because, it is a truth obvious to all who read that Instrument. The only question is, do the powers thereby transferred comprehend Sovereignty? If they do, then the government of the United States, the assignee of these powers, is a Sovereign. But if they do not that government is not a Sovereign: and as this Constitution does not profess to transfer any power, jurisdiction or authority, to any other, than to the government which it creates, the former possessors must still retain their Sovereignty, this Constitution, non obstante.

This results from the very nature of this Constitution, that all admit to be a grant of enumerated powers; and which, therefore, cannot convey what it does not enumerate. Even what lawyers would call implied powers, that is to say, such as are not granted in terms, but are necessary to give effect to others which are so granted, strictly speaking do not exist under this Constitution, because, all such powers are given expressly by the seventeenth paragraph of the eighth section of its first article; and of course are not implied powers. Nothing could better illustrate the excessive jealousy that dictated the instrument, than this simple fact: or prove more conclusively, that the sovereignty, which the Proclamation in this part of it, concedes, to have formerly abided in the States, could not pass to the government of the United States under this Constitution. Because, Sovereignty is novvheie therein granted in terms; and it cannot be believed, that when powers actually "necessary and proper for carrying into execution"