The Supreme Court of the United States in Cohens vs. The State of Virginia, in giving a con-' struction to the 11th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, say, it is in these words: "The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States, by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state."

"It is a part of our history, that at the adoption of the constitution, all the states were greatly indebted; and the apprehension that these debts might be prosecuted in the federal courts, formed a very serious objection to that instrument. Suits were instituted, and the court maintained its jurisdiction. The alarm was general; and, to quiet the apprehensions that were so extensively entertained, this amendment was proposed in Congress, and adopted by the state legislatures. That its motive was not to maintain the sovereignty of a state from the degradation supposed to attend a compulsory appearance before the tribunal of the nation, may be inferred from the terms of the amendment. It does not comprehend controversies between two or more states, or between a state and a foreign state. The jurisdiction of the court still extends to these cases: and in these a state may still be sued."

We see here that the authority of the court enables it to hold jurisdiction between a state of our Union and a foreign state.

But the judges of the courts of the United States though appointed for life are not independent. They may be impeached by the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate, and if two thirds of the senators present concur they may be condemned and degraded.

So our government is one of checks and balances. The national government, the states and all the officers, executive, legislative and judicial, are limited in their jurisdiction. As the planets move around the sun controlled by gravity, a silent secret influence, so self-government gives motion to all parts of our system which, though complex, is self-adjusting. There is no such thing as absolute uncontrolled power in any department of our republic.

We have now given a general idea of our national and state governments except as to the territories of the United States. The territories not formed into states are under the exclusive control of Congress and the President. As to them the national and municipal jurisdiction of Congress is plenary; and Congress may abolish slavery in them all as it did in 1787 in the North Western Territory, north of the Ohio river. The power of

Congress over the District of Columbia is the same as over its Territories. The legislative power over them resides in Congress.

NEW STATES.

One of the great powers of our republic is its authority to admit new states into the Union. Article 4th, Section 3d of the Constitution of the United States, says: "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

"The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United States," &c.

To ascertain the limits of this power let us remember that by the 10th amendment to the Constitution all powers not delegated by that instrument to the United States are reserved to the states and people respectively. Our national administration has no other governmental powers than those expressly granted, and those necessarily incident to them. (See 45th No. of the Federalist by James Madison, ed. of 1818, p. 292.)

What is the extent of this grant as to new states? The original Articles of Confederation of the Thirteen Colonies was a confederacy of independent states giving certain national powers to a Congress to form a national government. But this Union was found to be imperfect, as Congress had not power to enforce its decrees, upon the states and the people. This feeble confederacy was declared to be "a perpetual union between" the Thirteen States under the name of "The United States of America." By the 9th Article Canada was allowed to join the Confederacy, but the last clause says: "No other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states." This was plainly a union of these original States without any power of erecting new ones out of our new territories, or adding any foreign colony except Canada. When Canada failed to join in the revolution, this confederacy became limited to the thirteen original states. (See Federalist, p. 271 and 272.)

The Constitution of the United States in its preamble thus declares its object: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and

establish this Constitution for the United States of America." General Washington, in his letter to Congress of 17th of September, 1787, transmitting the Constitution agreed on by the Convention, says, that the aim of that body was, "the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence." The great end of enlarging the powers of the federal government was to perfect the union of the thirteen states and to secure to the people of them and their posterity the blessings of freedom. The idea of providing for territorial aggrandizement by the acquisition of Canada or any other territory beyond the limits of the United States was not suggested by that instrument, nor was it intended. (See Federalist, p. 271 and 293.) It was avowedly a more perfect union of the thirteen states in a more energetic federal government, with a power to admit new states to be formed out of any of them with consent of their legislatures concerned, or out of the vast territory lying out of the thirteen states, which by the treaty of peace of 1783, had passed to the United States from Great Britain. The Constitution did not enlarge the treaty-making power, but made it more effectual. (See Federalist, p. 293.) This is manifest from the general object of the Convention, from the preamble, from the letter of Washington, from