te, and that no amendment which
may be made prior to the year 1808 shall affect the first and fourth
clauses in the ninth section of the first article.

By the second section of the sixth article it is declared that the
Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in
pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under the authority of the
United States, 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. This right in the
National Government to execute its powers was indispensable to its
existence. If the State governments had not been restrained from
encroaching on the powers vested in the National Government, the
Constitution, like the Confederation, would soon have been set at
naught; and it was not within the limit of the human mind to devise
any plan for the accomplishment of the object other than by making a
national constitution which should be to the extent of its powers the
supreme law of the land. This right in the National Government would
have existed under the Constitution to the full extent provided for by
this declaration had it not been made. To prevent the possibility of
a doubt, however, on so important a subject it was proper to make the
declaration.

Having presented above a full view of all the powers granted to the
United States, it will be proper to look to those remaining to the
States. It is by fixing the great powers which are admitted to belong
to each government that we may hope to come to a right conclusion
respecting those in controversy between them. In regard to the National
Government, this task was easy because its powers were to be found in
specific grants in the Constitution; but it is more difficult to give a
detail of the powers of the State governments, as their constitutions,
containing all powers granted by the people not specifically taken
from them by grants to the United States, can not well be enumerated.
Fortunately, a precise detail of all the powers remaining to the State
governments is not necessary in the present instance. A knowledge of
their great powers only will answer every purpose contemplated, and
respecting these there can be no diversity in opinion. They are
sufficiently recognized and established by the Constitution of the
United States itself. In designating the important powers of the
State governments it is proper to