ABSTRACT
The powers of the National Government, though enumerated, are each of them sovereign powers and keep pace in their development with the enlargement of the subject-matter amenable to them. In a word, what powers the States possess is a matter of the utmost indifference in determining the scope of the treaty-making power of the United States. Or to put it otherwise, the United States has exactly the same range of power in making treaties that it would have if the States did not exist. The view that the reserved powers of the States comprise an independent limitation on national power probably found expression for the first time in the debate on Hamilton's Bank Project of 1791. And, as Chief Justice Marshall's words just quoted, indicate, the principles that determine the relation of Congress' power to State power also determine the relation of the national treaty-making power to State power.
