Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/32

6 to confine the Federal authority to its legitimate field of operation, and to control State aggression on the Federal domain.^

The history of the foundation of the Court in the proceedings of the Federal Convention of 1787 is too well known to need repetition. The initial step in establishing the supremacy of the new Federal Govern- ment was takeuj on July 17, 1787, when Luther Martin of Maryland moved the adoption of the following resolution:

Resolved that the Legislative acts of the United States made by virtue and in pursuance of the articles of Union, and all treaties made and ratified under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the respective States, as far as those acts or treaties shall relate to the said States, or their Citizens and inhabitants — and that the Judiciaries of the several States shall be bound thereby in their decisions, anything in the respective laws of the in- dividual States to the contrary notwithstanding. And this, in its final form, became the second clause of Article Six of the Constitution: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land ; and the Judges in every State shall be boimd thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

> See The Supreme Court of the United Staiee, lie History and Influence on our ConMutional System (1890), by WesteT W. WiUougbby ; Gordon v. United States (1864), 117 U. S. App. 700-701. '*The reason for giving sucb unusual power to a judicial tribunal is obvious. It was necessary to give it from the com* plex character of the Government of the United States, which is in part National and in part Federal ; where two separate governments exercise certain powers of sovereignty over the same territory, each independent of the other within its ap- propriate sphere of action, and where there was, therefore, an absolute necessity, in order to preserve internal tranquillity, that there should be some tribunal to decide between the Government of the United States and the government of a State, wheii- ever any controversy should arise as to their relative and respective powers in the common territory. The Supreme Court was created for that purpose."