riction in the Constitution, they must necessarily be as
fully possessed of it as ever they had been, and it could not be
said that the States derived any powers from that system, but
retained them, though not acknowledged in any part of it."[85]

In the other case, the special subject was the power of the Federal
judiciary. Mr. Marshall said, with regard to this: "I hope that no
gentleman will think that a State can be called at the bar of the
Federal court. Is there no such case at present? Are there not many
cases, in which the Legislature of Virginia is a party, and yet the
State is not sued? Is it rational to suppose that the sovereign power
shall be dragged before a court?"[86]

Authorities to the same effect might be multiplied indefinitely by
quotation from nearly all the most eminent statesmen and patriots of
that brilliant period. My limits, however, permit me only to refer those
in quest of more exhaustive information to the original records, or to
the "Republic of Republics," in which will be found a most valuable
collection and condensation of the teaching of the fathers on the
subject. There was no dissent, at that period, from the interpretation
of the Constitution which I have set forth, as given by its authors,
except in the objections made by its adversaries. Those objections were
refuted and silenced, until revived, long afterward, and presented as
the true interpretation, by the school of which Judge Story was the most
effective founder.

At an earlier period--but when he had already served for several years
in Congress, and had attained the full maturity of his powers--Mr.
Webster held the views which were presented in a memorial to Congress of
citizens of Boston, December 15, 1819, relative to the admission of
Missouri, drawn up and signed by a committee of which he was chairman,
and which also included among its members Mr. Josiah Quincy. He speaks
of the States as enjoying "_the exclusive possession of sovereignty_"
over their own territory, calls the United States "the American
Confederacy," and says, "The only _parties to the Constitution_,
contemplated by it originally, were the _thirteen confederated States_."
And again: "As between the original States, the representation rests on
_compact and plighted faith_; and your memorialists have no wish that
that compact should be disturbed, or that plighted faith in the
slightest degree violated."

It is satisfactory to know that in t