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several branches and departments to uphold and maintain that government
to the full extent of its constitutional power and authority, to enact
all laws necessary to that end, and to take care that those laws be
executed by all the means created and conferred by the Constitution
itself. We are to look to but one future, and that a future in which the
Constitution of the country shall stand as it now stands; laws passed in
conformity to it to be executed as they have hitherto been executed, and
the public peace maintained as it has hitherto been maintained.
Whatsoever of the future may be supposed to lie out of this line, is not
so much a thing to be expected, as a thing to be feared and dreaded, and
to be guarded against by the firmest resolution and the utmost vigilance
of all who are entrusted with the conduct of public affairs; no
alternative can be presented which is to authorize them to depart from
the course which they have sworn to pursue. In conferring the necessary
powers on the general government, it was foreseen that questions as to
the just extent of those powers might occur, and that cases of conflict
between the laws of the United States and the laws of individual States
might arise. It was of indispensable necessity, therefore, that the
manner in which such questions should be settled, and the tribunal which
should have the ultimate authority to decide them, should be established
and fixed by the Constitution itself: and this has been clearly and
amply done. By the Constitution of the United States, that instrument
itself, all acts of Congress passed in conformity to it, and public
treaties, constitute the supreme law of the land, and are to be of
controlling force and effect, anything in any State constitution or
State law to the contrary notwithstanding; and the judges in every
State, as well as of the courts of the United States, are expressly
bound thereby. The supreme rule, then, is plainly and clearly declared
and established: it is the Constitution of the United States, the laws
of Congress passed in pursuance thereof, and treaties made under the
authority of the United States. And here the great and turning question
arises, Who in the last resort is to construe and interpret this supreme
law? If it be alleged, for example, that a particular act of a State
Legislature is a violation of the Constitution of the United States, and
therefore void, what tribunal has authority finally to determine this
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