I9I2.] . OF THE UNITED STATES. 337 



with truth and justice: 'the treaty under which you claim those possessions, 

 has not been performed on your part ; until that is done, those possessions 

 will not be delivered up.' This clause, sir, will shew the world that we 

 make the faith of treaties a constitutional part of the character of the 

 United States; that we secure its performance no longer nominally, for the 

 judges of the United States will be enabled to carry into effect, let the 

 legislatures of the different states do what they may."'"" 



It will be noted at greater length hereafter but it should be noted 

 now that these words were spoken of an existing treaty, of existing 

 State laws, and of a subject not committed to Congress but reserved 

 to the States. 



Wilson had signed the Constitution as a delegate to the Federal 

 convention. But the opponents of the extent and supremacy of the 

 treaty-making power united in a similar interpretation of the con- 

 stitutional clauses. Luther Martin was a delegate from Maryland 

 and refused to sign the Constitution. To his State legislature he 

 gave an account of the proceedings and of the reason for his actions. 

 Of the Federal judicial power he said: 



" These courts, and these only, will have a right to decide upon the laws 

 of the United States, and all questions arising upon their construction, and in 

 a judicial manner to carry those laws into execution; to which the courts 

 both superior and inferior of the respective states and their judges and other 

 magistrates are rendered incompetent. To the courts of the general govern- 

 ment are also confined all cases in law or equity, arising under the proposed 

 Constitution, and treaties made under the authority of the United States. 

 . . . Whether therefore, any laws or regulations of the Congress, or any acts 

 of its president or other ofificers are contrary to, or not warranted by, the 

 Constitution, rests only with the judges who are appointed by Congress to 

 determine ; by whose determinations every state^^"' must be hound."^^^ 



George Mason, one of the delegates from Virginia to the Federal 

 Convention, thus wrote in a letter giving his reasons for declining 

 to sign the Constitution : 



"'By declaring all treaties supreme laws of the land, the executive and 

 the Senate have, in many cases, an exclusive power of legislation, which 

 might have been avoided, by proper distinctions with respect to treaties, and 

 requiring the assent of the House of Representatives, where it could be done 

 with safety."^'' 



"-Elliott's Debates, Vol. HI., pp. 28(^1. 



^^ Italics are in original. 



^^ Elliott's Debates, Vol. IV., p. 45, Ed. of 1830. 



^^Ibid., Vol. I., p. 495, Ed. of 1854. 



