Page:Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson.djvu/87

 whether abiding with the State governments, or with the People of the several States in their high corporate character. There existed strong necessity, too, for the employment of the very words used in this reservation, supposing its object to have been like that of the second article of the old Confederation, to except out of the grant all powers not conveyed by it, and this in favor of the respective possessors of such powers. Whoever will take the trouble to read the Constitution of the United States with attention, will find that it uses the term state in many different senses. Sometimes it is used to signify the territory, as when the Constitution says, "The citizens of each State, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." Sometimes it is used to denote the governments existing in such territory, as when it says, "No State shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts." Sometimes it means, the People of the Territory assembled by their representatives, not for the general purposes of government, but for some different, and special purpose only; as when it declares, that "The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same." And lastly, it is used to denote the unassembled People of any territory called a State, in their high corporate sovereign character, which they choose to assume when they agree to form,—conventions, to make or to alter government, or to do any other act, surpassing the legitimate powers of ordinary human institutions. In this last sense it is used in the Constitution, whenever that Instrument speaks of "The United States," meaning thereby the confederation of these distinct masses, who have mutually pledged their faith to each other, that they will severally uphold and support this Constitution, by all their means, moral and physical.

The term States being used in the Constitution itself in these various senses, it was not only proper, but necessary also, that the reservation should be co-extensive with the grant, and should employ its own words. But lest some doubts might arise as to the precise meaning of these, the amendment adds others still more comprehensive in signification, and of more general use.

In this respect at least the amendments differ from the