to Washington, while on the other hand in the lower house each state has
a number of representatives proportioned to its population. The upper
house of Congress is therefore a federal while the lower house is a
national body, and the government is brought into direct contact with
the people without endangering the equal rights of the several states.

The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in the
series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the
states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and
jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of
property, marriage and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the
punishment of malefactors, each separate state is as completely a
sovereign state as France or Great Britain. In speaking to a British
audience a concrete illustration may not be superfluous. If a criminal
is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, the royal prerogative of pardon
resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: the President of the United
States has no more authority in the case than the Czar of Russia. Nor in
civil cases can an appeal lie from the state courts to the Supreme Court
of the United States, save where express provision has been made in the
Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. The chief
attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have parted are
the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition of tariff
dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration of war,
and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and
controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own
militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before
calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however,
these militias come under the control of the central government. Thus
every American citizen lives under two governments, the functions of
which are clearly and intelligibly distinct.