Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/532

difference of opinion to be expected? Does it not exist in relation to the acts of the state governments? Must it not exist in every government, formed and directed by human beings of different talents, characters, passions, virtues, motives, and intelligence? That some of the measures of the general government have been deemed usurpations by some of the states is also true. But it is equally true, that those measures were deemed constitutional by a majority of the states, and as such, received the most hearty concurrence of the state authorities. It is also true, that some measures, whose constitutionality has been doubted or denied by some states, have, at other times, upon re-examination, been approved of by the same states. Not a single measure has ever induced three quarters of the states to adopt any amendment to the constitution founded upon the notion of usurpation.^[1] Wherever an amendment has taken place, it has been to clear a real doubt, or obviate an inconvenience established by our experience. And this very power of amendment, at the command of the states themselves, forms the great balance-wheel of our system; and enables us silently and quietly to redress all irregularities, and to put down all practical oppressions. And what is not a little remarkable in the history of the government, is, that two measures, which stand confessedly upon the extreme limits of constitutional authority, and carry the doctrine of constructive power to the last verge, have been brought forward by those, who were the opponents of the constitution, or the known advocates for its most restricted construc-

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1. If there be any exception, it is the decision, as to the suability of the states. But even this deserves not the name of usurpation, for the case falls clearly within the words of the constitution.