Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/277

power. The people ought not to be presumed to part with rights, so vital to their security and well-being, without very strong, and positive declarations to that effect.^[1]

§ 1394. The remaining prohibition in this clause is, that no state shall "grant any title of nobility." The reason of this prohibition is the same, as that, upon which the like prohibition to the government of the nation is founded. Indeed, it would be almost absurd to provide sedulously against such a power in the latter, if the states were still left free to exercise it. It has been emphatically said, that this is the cornerstone of a republican government; for there can be little danger, while a nobility is excluded, that the government will ever cease to be that of the people.^[2]

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1. Wilkinson v. Leland, 2 Peters's Sup. R. 627, 657. See also Satterlee v. Mathewson, 2 Peters's Sup. R. 380, 413, 414; Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 67, 134; Tenett v. Taylor, 9 Cranch, 52; Town of Pawlet v. Clark, 9 Cranch, 535. See also Sergeant on Const. ch. 28, [ch. 30.]
2. The Federalist, No. 84.