We have in our political system a government of the United States and a government of each of the several states. Each one of these governments is distinct from the others, and each has citizens of its own who owe it allegiance, and whose rights, within its jurisdiction, it must protect. The same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a citizen of a state, but his rights of citizenship under one of these governments will be different from those he has under the other.... Experience made the fact known to _the people of the United States_ that _they_ required a national government for national purposes.... For this reason, the people of the United States ... ordained and established the government of the United States, and defined its powers by a Constitution, which they adopted as its fundamental law, and made its rules of action. The government thus established and defined is to some extent a government of the states in their political capacity. It is also, for certain purposes, a government of the people. Its powers are limited in number, but not in degree. Within the scope of its powers, as enumerated and defined, it is supreme and above the states; but beyond, it has no existence. It was erected for special purposes and endowed with all the powers necessary for its own preservation and the accomplishment of the ends its people had in view.... The people of the United States resident within any state are subject to two governments, one state, and the other _national_; but there need be no conflict between the two. Powers which one possesses, the other does not. They are established for different purposes, and have separate jurisdictions. Together they make one whole, and furnish the people of the United States with a complete government, ample for the protection of all their rights at home and abroad. (Justice Waite, in Supreme Court, United States v. Cruikshank, 92 _U. S._ 542.)