American Fisheries Society. 221 
admiralty and maritime matters, but no one has ever supposed 
that such jurisdiction has interfered with the laws of any state 
on the subject of water-craft, nor with its criminal courts. 
Moreover, the matter of preserving the food fishes in the 
Great Lakes is not merely a state matter. It is one which con- 
cerns the entire country; it affects all the people of the country 
and is therefore a question of national importance. The nation 
only can deal with it successfully. 
May I add a word of sentiment ? 
I will allow no one to go before me in giving allegiance to 
my own state. If ceding control of the Great Lakes to the fed- 
eral government for the purposes just spoken of would in the 
least interfere with the right or power of Michigan to manage 
its own affairs within its own borders, then, emphatically, it 
should not be done. But our experience shows conclusively that 
it will not. 
The structure of our national government is upon founda- 
tions laid deep and strong. To my mind the master builder was 
John Marshall of the Old Dominion state. 
It was he who demonstrated to the judicial world that the 
federal constitution created a nation and contained within itself 
the power of self-maintenance; that 1t was not constructed for 
a day, but for all time. The arbitrament of the sword subse- 
quently demonstrated its physical power. 
While each state is a perfect entity with plenary and ex- 
clusive power to regulate its own domestic affairs, yet each 
most loyally yields to the federal government, full and ample 
power to sustain itself as one of the great and independent na- 
tions of the earth. 
Jealousy of federal control should no longer enter into the 
discussion of a question of this kind. We are one people. We 
are not strangers to each other. The citizen of Michigan ts at 
home and among friends and neighbors in West Virginia, and 
the West Virginian is equally at home and among friends and 
neighbors in Michigan. 
Our interests are common. Our hopes and our aspirations 
are everywhere the same. The question of state advantage no 
longer troubles us. What is the best for a// is now the question 
which the true statesman considers. East, west, north and 
