8906. WAR, Power to declare.—[further continued].
The States of America
before their present Union possessed completely,
each within its own limits, the exclusive
right to * * * [make war and]
by their act of Union, they have as completely
ceded [it] to the General Government. Art.
1st. Section 8th, “The Congress shall have
power to declare war, to raise and support
armies”. Section 10th, * * *
“No State shall without the consent of
Congress, keep troops or ships of war in
time of peace, enter into any argreement
or compact with another State or with
a foreign power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded or in such danger as will
not admit of delay”. These paragraphs of
the Constitution, declaring that the General
Government shall have, and that the particular
ones shall not have, the right of war
* * * are so explicit that no commentary
can explain them further, nor can any explain
them away.—
Opinion on Georgian Land Grants. Washington ed. vii, 468.
Ford ed., v, 166.
(1790)
