[96] In two classes of these cases, namely, those in which ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls are parties and those in which a state is a party, the Supreme Court has _original_ jurisdiction, that is, the right to hear and determine the case in the first instance. But that does not mean that the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction in such cases. Other federal courts may try such cases, and as a matter of fact few original suits have ever been brought in the Supreme Court. In the other classes of cases mentioned, the Supreme Court has _appellate_ jurisdiction (with such exceptions as Congress may make), that is, such cases must be commenced in the lower courts, from which they may be taken on appeal to the Supreme Court. The wisdom and propriety of giving the federal courts jurisdiction over all such cases are obvious, since they involve either national, interstate, or international questions. Manifestly, the state courts could not properly be left to determine finally controversies involving the meaning or the application of provisions of the federal Constitution, laws, or treaties, since in that case they would not be what they are declared to be, namely, the supreme law of the land. Conflicting decisions would be rendered by the courts of different states, and in case of inconsistency between state constitutions and laws on the one hand and the federal Constitution, laws, and treaties on the other, the state courts would be under the temptation to uphold the validity of the former. _The Eleventh Amendment._--As originally adopted, the Constitution permitted suits to be brought in the federal courts against a state by citizens of another state or by citizens of foreign countries, and when a suit brought against the state of Georgia in 1793 by a citizen of South Carolina named Chisholm for the recovery of a debt was actually entertained by the Supreme Court, widespread popular indignation followed the decision. The authorities of Georgia felt that it was derogatory to the dignity of a sovereign state that it should be made the defendant in a suit brought by a private individual, and a demand was made that the Constitution be amended so as to prevent such "suits" in the future. As a result of this demand, the Eleventh Amendment was adopted in 1798 which declared that the judicial power of the United States should not be construed to extend to suits brought against a state by citizens of another state or of a foreign country. Nevertheless while a state cannot be made a defendant in a federal court at the instance of a private individual of another state, the federal courts may entertain jurisdiction of suits between a state and a citizen of another state provided the state is the plaintiff.