adapt it to the
new Government, the words are peculiarly applicable and appropriate for
that purpose.

The necessity of this special provision in relation to property and the
rights or property held in common by the confederated States, is
illustrated by the first clause of the sixth article. This clause
provides that "all debts, contracts, and engagements entered into before
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Government as under the Confederation." This
provision, like the one under consideration, was indispensable if the
new Constitution was adopted. The new Government was not a mere change
in a dynasty, or in a form of government, leaving the nation or
sovereignty the same, and clothed with all the rights, and bound by all
the obligations of the preceding one. But when the present United States
came into existence under the new Government, it was a new political
body, and a new nation, then for the first time taking its place in the
family of nations. It took nothing by succession from the Confederation.
It had no right, as its successor, to any property or rights of property
which it had acquired, and was not liable for any of its obligations. It
was evidently viewed in this light by the framers of the Constitution.
And as the several States would cease to exist in their former
confederated character upon the adoption of the Constitution, and could
not, in that character, again assemble together, special provisions were
indispensable to transfer to the new Government the property and rights
which at that time they held in common; and at the same time to
authorize it to lay taxes and appropriate money to pay the common debt
which they had contracted; and this power could only be given to it by
special provisions in the Constitution. The clause in relation to the
territory and other property of the United States provided for the
first, and the clause last quoted provides for the other. They have no
connection with the general powers and rights of sovereignty delegated
to the new Government, and can neither enlarge nor diminish them. They
were inserted to meet a present emergency, and not to regulate its
powers as a Government.

Indeed, a similar provision was deemed necessary, in relation to
treaties made by the Confederation; and when in the clause next
succeeding the one of which we have last spoken, it is declared that
treaties shall be the supreme law of th