their State constitution,
except in the mode prescribed by that instrument, unless by a
revolution? And the same power, the people of Carolina, that formed for
them their State constitution, ratified and rendered obligatory upon
them the Constitution of the Union; and can the one and not the other be
abolished, except by a revolution, in any other mode than that
prescribed by the Constitution? No; the people of Carolina, and of all
the States, as distinct communities, in ratifying the Constitution of
the Union, rendered it binding upon the people of every State, by the
declaration that 'this Constitution shall be the supreme law of the
land, and that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby,
anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.' Here we see the distinction between the State and the
people of the State again recognized and confirmed, and the 'State,' by
its 'laws,' and the people of the State, by the formation of a
constitution, expressly prohibited from arresting the operation of the
Constitution of the United States, as 'the supreme law of the land,' 'in
every State.' If Carolina secede, she must form a constitution, by which
she will assume the powers granted to the General Government, and vest
them in the government of the State. Here she would be met by the former
act of the people of Carolina, declaring that they had abandoned the
power to form for themselves a constitution by which the Constitution of
the Union would cease within their limits to be 'the supreme law of the
land.' Nor did the framers of the Constitution mean to say only that the
then existing Constitutions of the States ratifying the compact should
be subordinate to the Constitution of the Union; for then, also, only
the existing laws of any State were required to be subordinate to the
Constitution of the Union; but both are placed on the same basis. The
power of a State to nullify by its laws, or secede by forming a new
constitution, are both denied in the same clause and sentence of the
American Constitution. The language is clear, that the Constitution of
the Union shall be 'the supreme law of the land,' and 'binding in every
State,' 'anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the
contrary notwithstanding.' The terms are '_shall be_;' it is the
language of command, it is prospective, it was binding when subscribed,
now, and forever. Or, was Carolina never bound by this compact, and
mi