and severally, being recognized in the Constitution to be held by the people of those States, this sovereignty has the national character exclusively, as opposed to a private character, according to the distinction made in the use of those terms in a former chapter;' and the law, in acknowledging that sovereignty, recognizes the possession of political rights by the individuals constituting the people; while at the same time the possession of sovereignty by the people in their double political character— as one nation, and as separate political bodies,-is a fact antecedent to and lying at the foundation of all law in the primary sense,—all rules of action to be judicially recognized in this country as the positive law. The possession of those rights constitutes liberty in one of its forms of existence, viz., political liberty, as before defined; and is necessarily a private right in individuals, i. e., the right of a private person. 2 But in considering freedom of action in civil or social relations, as a topic of private law, political liberty needs not to be farther considered except so far as it is connected with civil liberty in being, necessarily, a legal attribution of the capacity for the rights of a legal person, and inconsistent with the condition of a thing, or of the object of the rights of others; and also in supposing, in its possessors, a legal liberty of choice and action totally incompatible with the existence of an involuntary subjection, in social relations, to another person. This political liberty, as the right of the individual member of the civil state, is determined by some law, in the proper and ordinary sense; and, for the present purpose, the most essential consideration in regard to it is the foundation upon which it rests, in the public law of the United States; or the location of that power of sovereignty which originates that political right. § 423. If the possession of political liberty by individuals is not fixed, in the Constitution, by the national exercise of this power on the part of the people of the United States, (that is, by private law contained in the Constitution,) it must, under the constitutional distribution of power, be vested either in the 1 Ante, § 354 and note. 2 Ante, § 352. national Government or in the several States. But though the possession of political rights by individuals is a fact which enters into the actual continuation of the national Government, and the exercise of those sovereign powers in and by the Constitution which, by the force of such exercise, constitute the people of the several States into one nation or state among the other "powers of the earth," there is nothing in the Constitution itself which determines who are the individuals that are to constitute the political people of that nation, or who are, in other words, to enjoy this liberty of action, in respect either to the political existence of the nation, or that of the several States. The only provisions in the Constitution which directly affect political rights or privileges, are those which limit the qualifications for office, or determine political capacities in respect to the organization of the national Government. These, in determining the instruments of supreme power, or the persons to whom it shall be intrusted, are public law as well as a law determining the rights of private individuals; and, though they are material for securing political freedom to the people of the United States in their character of an embodied state or nationality, or, in other words, for maintaining the national possession of sovereignty in its present form, and hence, derivatively, for securing all individual freedom of action, they are not necessary to be here considered. § 424. Since therefore the possession of those rights of action which constitute political freedom in private persons must be determined by some who are vested with sovereign power, the power to determine that possession must either be vested in Congress or be reserved to the States respectively, or the people of those States, as together exercising the sum of sovereign legislative power not already exercised in the Constitution. If the term "republican government" implies the possession of political liberties by any of those who are also individually subject to the supreme power of the state, the provision in the Constitution that the United States shall guarantee to every State of the Union a republican form of government,' taken in con 1 Art. IV. Sec. 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." and severally, being recognized in the Constitution to be held by the people of those States, this sovereignty has the national character exclusively, as opposed to a private character, according to the distinction made in the use of those terms in a former chapter;' and the law, in acknowledging that sovereignty, recognizes the possession of political rights by the individuals constituting the people; while at the same time the possession of sovereignty by the people in their double political character— as one nation, and as separate political bodies,-is a fact antecedent to and lying at the foundation of all law in the primary sense, all rules of action to be judicially recognized in this country as the positive law. The possession of those rights constitutes liberty in one of its forms of existence, viz., political liberty, as before defined; and is necessarily a private right in individuals, i. e., the right of a private person. But in considering freedom of action in civil or social relations, as a topic of private law, political liberty needs not to be farther considered except so far as it is connected with civil liberty in being, necessarily, a legal attribution of the capacity for the rights of a legal person, and inconsistent with the condition of a thing, or of the object of the rights of others; and also in supposing, in its possessors, a legal liberty of choice and action totally incompatible with the existence of an involuntary subjection, in social relations, to another person. This political liberty, as the right of the individual member of the civil state, is determined by some law, in the proper and ordinary sense; and, for the present purpose, the most essential consideration in regard to it is the foundation upon which it rests, in the public law of the United States; or the location of that power of sovereignty which originates that political right. § 423. If the possession of political liberty by individuals is not fixed, in the Constitution, by the national exercise of this power on the part of the people of the United States, (that is, by private law contained in the Constitution,) it must, under the constitutional distribution of power, be vested either in the 1 Ante, § 354 and note. 2 Ante, § 352. national Government or in the several States. But though the possession of political rights by individuals is a fact which enters into the actual continuation of the national Government, and the exercise of those sovereign powers in and by the Constitution which, by the force of such exercise, constitute the people of the several States into one nation or state among the other "powers of the earth," there is nothing in the Constitution itself which determines who are the individuals that are to constitute the political people of that nation, or who are, in other words, to enjoy this liberty of action, in respect either to the political existence of the nation, or that of the several States. The only provisions in the Constitution which directly affect political rights or privileges, are those which limit the qualifications for office, or determine political capacities in respect to the organization of the national Government, These, in determining the instruments of supreme power, or the persons to whom it shall be intrusted, are public law as well as a law determining the rights of private individuals; and, though they are material for securing political freedom to the people of the United States in their character of an embodied state or nationality, or, in other words, for maintaining the national possession of sovereignty in its present form, and hence, derivatively, for securing all individual freedom of action, they are not necessary to be here considered. § 424. Since therefore the possession of those rights of action which constitute political freedom in private persons must be determined by some who are vested with sovereign power, the power to determine that possession must either be vested in Congress or be reserved to the States respectively, or the people of those States, as together exercising the sum of sovereign legislative power not already exercised in the Constitution. If the term "republican government" implies the possession of political liberties by any of those who are also individually subject to the supreme power of the state, the provision in the Constitution that the United States shall guarantee to every State of the Union a republican form of government,' taken in con 1 Art. IV. Sec. 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." nection with the legislative powers vested in Congress, gives to the national Government, as the sole representative of the United States, some power to maintain in each State the political liberties of the individuals constituting the people of that State. But there is no power given to Congress to determine within a State, by a personal law, any specific possession of political rights, not even in the power to pass naturalization laws, that is, laws by which aliens to the dominion of the United States shall acquire the rights of a person born within that dominion. The possession of political liberty, as the right of a private person, is therefore, within each of the several States, determined, as an element of the political constitution both of the State and of the United States, by the will of that body of persons known as being, by the present possession and exercise of power, the political people of that State. They have the right to abridge or extend at their will the enjoyment of political liberty by individual inhabitants of their territory; subject only to the effect of the provision for a republican government, and to those provisions of a quasi-international character which limit the power of the State over persons who are alien to their several jurisdiction. Whatever may be the principles affecting the possession of political liberties by individuals, which natural reason and political right (ethics) require to be observed in states and nations, the juridical recognition of those principles,-whether they can be called doctrines of a historically known law of nations-universal jurisprudence-or not, is dependent on the sanction of the sovereign power vested in the several States; except as affected by the above described provisions of the Constitution. § 425. The provisions of the Constitution, before referred to, which being of the nature of a bill of rights, constitute private law,' are a protection to the inhabitants of the United States only against the powers delegated to the national Government." 1 Ante, § 409, 410. Kent's Comm. Lect. XIX, in beginning: "As the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people of the United States for their own government as a nation, and not for the government of the individual States, the |