Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/117



, though the Federal Circuit Courts in these early years were dealing with questions affecting State sovereignty without arousing State jealdusy, the danger of a clash between Federal and State author- ity in the Supreme Court itself was grave and imminent, owing to the appearance on its docket of a number of suits instituted by private individuals against the States^ themselves. The right of the Federal Judiciary to summon a State as defendant and to adjudicate its rights and liabilities had been the subject of deep appre- hension and of active debate at the time of the adoption of the Constitution ; but the existence of any such right had been declaimed by many of the most eminent advocates of the new Federal Government, and it was largely owing to their successful dissipation of the fear of the existence of such Federal power that the Constitution was finally adopted. Yet, in spite of all such disclaimers, the very first suit entered in the Court at its February Term in 1791 was brought against the State of Maryland by a firm of Dutch bankers as creditors; and the question of State sovereignty became at once a judicial issue. The next year, at the February, 1792, Term, a second suit was entered by an individual against the State of New York ; and at the same time a suit in