Page:Hawkins v. Filkins 01.pdf/1

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HAWKINS vs. FILKINS.

 

The thirteen colonies, although dependencies of the British government, were entirely independent of each other; and separately and severally constituted the government of the United States; and it may be safely assumed that the people of the several states, in whom the sovereign power rests, had conferred upon their state governments sovereign and independent powers as such, limited only by the extent to whieh power was afterwards conferred by the constitution upon the federal government, or limited by it to the states,

But whether the constitution was made and adopted by the states, or by the people of the states, as a political question, is of no importance for any purpose of judicial investigation.

There can be no question but that the federal government derived its entire power and authority from the constitution; and is limited in the exercise of its powers to the specific grants of power therein contained, and to such implied powers as are necessary to give effect to the expressly delegated powers.

The powers granted to the federal government were for national purposes only: and the constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are the supreme law: and as the expressly delegated powers did not embrace any of the local municipal powers of the state government, they necessarily belong exclusively to the states and to the people; in respect to which the states are independent and sovereign; and to that extent the allegiance of the people is due to their state government.

The convention of this state, which framed the constitution of 1861, was called according to the provisions of the then existing constitution; and no acts of that