CHAPTER V.
RULES OF INTERPRETATION.
§ 397. In our future commentaries upon the constitution we shall treat it, then, as it is denominated in the instrument itself, as a constitution of government, ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves and their posterity.[1] They have declared it the supreme law of the land. They have made it a limited government. They have defined its authority. They have restrained it to the exercise of certain powers, and reserved all others to the states or to the people. It is a popular government. Those who administer it are responsible to the people. It is as popular, and just as much emanating from the people, as the state governments. It is created for one purpose ; the state governments for another. It may be altered, and amended, and abolished at the will of the people. In short, it was made by the people, made for the people, and is responsible to the people.[2]
- ↑ "The government of the Union," says Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, in delivering the opinion of the court in McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, "is emphatically and truly a government of the people. It emanates from them; its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them and for their benefit." Id. 404, 405; see also Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. R. 264, 413, 414.
"The government of the United States was erected," says Mr. Chancellor Kent, with equal force and accuracy, "by the free voice and the joint will of the people of America for their common defence and general welfare." 1 Kent's Comm. Lect. 10, p. 189. - ↑ I have used the expressive words of Mr. Webster, deeming them as exact as any that could be used. See Webster's Speeches, p. 410, 418, 419; 4 Elliot's Debates, 338, 343.
