can or may have, is the right to adopt its own form of government; but this clause completely destroys such right on the part of any State of this Union to frame its own form of government.  No State, for example, can have a monarchical government; since the United States are to guarantee a republican form:  and no State can adopt an hereditary or theocratic government, because the UNITED STATES are bound to give each State a republican government.  In like manner we might run through all the forms of government that have ever blessed or cursed our race, without finding one which can he adopted by any State of this Union, except the single form of ‘republican,’ named in the Constitution.  But can a State bereft of the right to frame its own mode of government be said to be possessed of ‘sovereign’ ‘State rights,’ or could a more effectual provision against their development have been formed than this?

’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.

’The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several STATE LEGISLATURES, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the SEVERAL STATES, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.’

This Constitution, these laws, these treaties, shall be the supreme law, no matter what ‘State’ constitutions and ‘State’ laws may declare.  ‘Shall!’ is the word, and there can be no doubt as to its meaning.  Again, members of the State Legislatures, and all officers of the several States ‘shall’ be bound to support the ‘Constitution.’  Where are the ‘State rights’ in these clauses?  Every State and every State official is made subordinate to and an executive of the acts of the ‘United States,’ and the United States constitutes a ‘nation’.  That is the only word which meets our case.  WE ARE A NATION, not ’a tenant-at-will sort of confederacy.’

The waters of the Bay of New-York and of the Hudson river flow entirely within the States of New-York and New-Jersey.  One of the vested rights of an independent state, is that known as ‘eminent domain,’ or supreme ownership, implying control.  Apply this doctrine of State rights in this case, or rather, allow it to be applied by the States named above, and they could prevent the navigation of these waters by any but their own citizens or those to whom they might grant that privilege.  If this doctrine of State rights is sound, these two States would have the right to levy tolls or duties on every vessel that sails those waters, as the State of New-York exacts tolls on her canals.  Such power thus exercised,