ions? The power to coerce a State was nowhere conferred. The
militia, to be sure, could be called out to execute the laws; and the
United States guaranteed to every State a republican form of government
and promised protection against domestic violence. Congress could deal
surely and effectively with any future Shays if it were invited to do
so. But what if a State passed a law violating the obligation of
contracts? The answer is contained in the clause which reads: "This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under
the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the
Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in
the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
This and the correlative clause which extended the judicial power to all
cases arising under the Constitution, the laws and the treaties of the
United States, may be called the keystone of the whole constitutional
structure. "For the first time in history, courts are called upon by the
simple processes of administering justice, in cases where private right
or personal injury is involved, to uphold the structure of the body
politic." And there were those in the convention who believed that the
principle of judicial control included the power of passing upon the
constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress.

It was still within the power of the old Congress to expedite or block
the ratification of the new Constitution. The document which the
Philadelphia Convention presented was technically only a revision of the
Articles of Confederation, which might be altered only with the consent
of the legislatures of all thirteen States; but the last article of this
new instrument provided that when ratified by conventions (not
legislatures) in nine States, it should go into effect among the States
so acting. In effect, Congress was asked to sanction a secession of nine
States from the old Union which had been declared perpetual. Making a
virtue of necessity, Congress finally yielded and passed the
Constitution on to the States.

[Map: Distribution of Votes in Ratification of the Constitution
The Middle States (Based on the map of O. G. Libby)]

Since the party struggles of Whigs and Tories no campaign of continental
proportions had ever been seen like that which ensued between the
friends and foes of the new Con