“Sovereign power is no Parliamentary word. In my opinion, it weakens Magna Charta and all our statutes; for they are absolute, without any saving of sovereign power; and shall we now add it, we shall weaken the foundation of law, and then the building must needs fall. Take we heed what we yield unto. _Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign._”[192] But the Constitution is our Magna Charta, which can bear no sovereign but itself, as you will see at once, if you consider its character. And this practical truth was recognized at its formation, as may be seen in the writings of our Rushworth: I refer to Nathan Dane, who was a member of Congress under the Confederation. He tells us plainly, that the terms “sovereign States,” “State sovereignty,” “State rights,” “rights of States,” are “not constitutional expressions.”[193] * * * * * In the exercise of its sovereignty, Congress is intrusted with large and peculiar powers. Take notice of them, and you will see how little of “sovereignty” is left to the States. Their simple enumeration is an argument against this pretension. Congress may “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and _provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States_”; it may “borrow money on the credit of the United States”; “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and _among the several States_, and with the Indian tribes”; “establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, _throughout the United States_”; “coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures”; “provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States”; “establish post-offices and post-roads”; “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”; “constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court”; “define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the Law of Nations”; “declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water”; “raise and support armies”; “provide and maintain a navy”; “make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces”; “provide for calling forth the militia to execute _the laws of the Union_, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions”; “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia _according to the discipline prescribed by Congress_”; “exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over the seat of the government