The Constitution of the United States in Some of Its Fundamental Aspects |
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action adopted affairs America Articles of Confederation authority bill of attainder Bill of Rights Boston University central government Charles Warren Chief Justice Child Labor Child Labor Amendment citizenship clause commerce Congress Constitution Convention decision declared delegates democracy doctrine due process duty effective Eighteenth Amendment elected Elihu Root enacted eral ernment establish exercise federal government form of government framers function GASPAR G Gouverneur Morris governmental granted gress Hamilton impaired imposed individual citizen institutions interference judicial power judiciary jurisdiction legislation legislature liberty limited Madison Magna Carta majority Massachusetts ment national government necessary party pass person police power political preme Court preserve principle of local process of law prohibited proper proposed protection public opinion purpose question ratified regulate representative government republic secure self-government Senate sovereign sovereignty stitution Supreme Court thority tion tional unconstitutional Union Virginia Virginia Plan vital vote welfare
Popular passages
Page 95 - Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.
Page 139 - The powers of the legislature are defined and limited, and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten the Constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may at any time be passed by those intended to be restrained...
Page 3 - The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.
Page 140 - It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each.
Page 37 - Not only, therefore, can there be no loss of separate and independent autonomy to the States, through their union under the Constitution, but it may be not unreasonably said that the preservation of the States, and the maintenance of their governments, are as much within the design and care of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the National government. The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States.
Page 168 - To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such -1 faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are Directed.
Page 126 - Constitution, independent tribunals of justice will consider themselves in a peculiar manner the guardians of those rights ; they will be an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the Legislative or Executive ; they will be naturally led to resist every encroachment upon rights expressly stipulated for in the Constitution by the declaration of rights.
Page 63 - In America, the powers of sovereignty are divided between the government of the Union and those of the States. They are each sovereign, with respect to the objects committed to it, and neither sovereign with respect to the objects committed to the other.
Page 12 - It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work ? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair ; the event is in the hand of God.
Page 114 - That a State in the exercise of its police power may punish those who abuse this freedom by utterances inimical to the public welfare, tending to corrupt public morals, incite to crime, or disturb the public peace, is not open to question.