132 WISCON'SIN' ACADEMY SCIENCES, ARTS, AND LETTERS. 



Pomerny* as to the relation of the States to the United State?, 

 which is essentially that of Mr. Austin, 1 fully accept. " The peo- 

 ple of the United States, as a nation, is the ultimate source of all 

 power, both that conferred upon the Geueral Gi)vernment, that 

 conferred upon each State as a sep irate political society, and that 

 retained by themselves." Oaly, by '• ultimate source," I do not 

 nnrlerstand historical filiation, but I'gal authority, under the con- 

 stitution; the States — meaninj^Hiy that the people of the several 

 States — formed themselves, by this act, iuto ''the People of the 

 United Stiites;'"' and this sovereign people, as organised in States, 

 exercises its sovereign powers liy the two-fold instrumentalit}' of 

 the National Government and the States' Governments, distribut- 

 ing; tlie-ie powers hehwien the ;e two iustru meat liities a^ seems most 

 expedient. Thus the States are as much sovereign as the Nation; 

 but in truth neither is sovereign, but each is an organization for 

 the exercise of a certain definite portion of the powers of govern- 

 ment. The sovereignty is not divided between States and Nation, 

 because sovereignty is indivisil)le and absolute; but the functions 

 of government, in which consists the exercise of the powers of 

 sovereignty, can be divided, and are divided between these two or- 

 gan izntiou'^. 



* J'au'e 23. 



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