5. Nor shall any body of forces be kept up in any State in time of peace.

6. No State shall grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, or letters of marque and reprisal.

§ 585. These, and many other powers of the general government and disabilities of the local legislatures, were not new, but had been practised, or well understood, from the foundation of the American Union. But they were introduced into this league of confederation for the double purpose of being claimed as grants or concessions of the State governments, and of being rendered, in a great measure, nugatory, as they were, by exceptions, qualifications, and limitations, that destroyed all efficiency in the government, and brought it to a speedy stand. Though by these operations the legal status of the people of the United States or their government had not, in respect to the local jurisdictions, been actually changed; yet it was found necessary, in order to preserve the Union and prevent a total abolition of the government, to resort to an entirely new organization. This was most providentially effected by the people, in peace, with the active co-operation and assistance of all the State legislatures, and the organs of their alliance.

§ 586. Up to this time, though the legal relations of the American Union, both internal and external, remained unchanged, they were actually

unwritten, practically undefined, and essentially unlimited, except by the principles of international and natural law. They made little progress in defining or systematizing them during the War of Independence; and the abortive league of confederation among the subordinate governments made none afterwards. So the Constitution itself was the result of the first and only attempt of the American people to define and limit, by a written fundamental law, the rights and duties of their own government, in relation to every thing within and every thing without its jurisdiction.

§ 587. In respect to all within the United States or any part thereof, whether individuals, communities, corporations, or governments, they have spread over them the broad mantle of the Constitution, subjecting the whole, equally and universally, to the supreme law of the land. All that it says particularly the States shall not do, and all it says more generally shall not be done, it is the business of the government to take care that they are not done. Any one of the least of these disabilities is a perfect negation of all claims to independence, nationality, or sovereignty. Several of them are aimed directly at those attributes.

588. "No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; . . enter into any agreement or compact with another State or with a foreign power, or engage in a war," &c.

A sovereign and independent State prohibited from quarrelling with its neighbours, or even making peace!! They might as well be required to practise "justice and domestic tranquillity,”to stay at home and mind their own business. Yet this class of prohibitions deprives the States of no power they ever possessed. We have seen that the State governments themselves, in their confederation league, most elaborately disclaimed the whole of them. Besides these disabilities going precisely to the annihilation of any claim to a status among nations, as independent sovereignties by international law, the Constitution imposes many others interfering more directly with the internal administration of interests purely local. Some of these are particular, and apply directly and exclusively to the States; while others are general, in the nature of a declaration of rights, and operate not only as a restraint on the people of the States and their own local governments, but also on the government and people of the whole nation.

CHAPTER XXX.

STATE DISABILITIES.

589. THE disabilities of States, in respect to the domestic affairs of their own localities, specially imposed by the Constitution, are mostly found in the 10th section of Article I. "No

State shall grant letters of marque and reprisal." This prohibition is made on account of the danger to which the exercise of such a power would expose the peace of the country, and the international relations of their government. "No State shall ... coin money." As this power was expressly given to Congress, the restriction prevents any interference by States. "No State shall . . . emit bills of credit." As a State cannot make money, or say what shall be money, so neither can they make or authorize any substitute for money. A bill of credit is a promise to pay money. "In its enlarged, and perhaps literal, sense, the term 'bill of credit,' in the Constitution, may comprehend any instrument by which a State engages to pay money at a future day; thus including a certificate given for borrowed

money."1 The whole duty of regulating the currency, as an instrument of commerce and a part of the commercial power, is imposed upon Congress; and the States are expressly, as well as impliedly, excluded from it. What they cannot do themselves, of course they cannot authorize others to do for them. Thus far is clear.

§ 590. But what is its bearing upon other assumed powers of the State governments? If the States may contract debt, receive credit, and especially if they may borrow money, they must promise to pay; that is, in some some form or by some token, issue or "emit a bill of credit." This the owner may sell or transfer to his neighbor, and thus it may go into circulation, as a substitute for the money it promises. If it is valid evidence of a legal claim against the State in the hands of the owner, such evidence can be multiplied to any extent, and the prohibition be rendered thereby utterly void. If such evidence, as being issued in direct violation of the Constitution, is inadmissible, and can prove nothing, then the States can have no credit for borrowed money or any thing that requires that kind of proof. This condition of the law would afford the best security for the United States against a liability for the debts of repudiating States. State debts, lawfully contracted and proved, must be paid, because the States are able to pay them. If they may lawfully contract debts, by borrow

14 Peters' Rep., 431, Craig v. Missouri.