Mr. Mason has here asserted, “That the judiciary of the United
States is so constructed and extended, as to absorb and destroy the
judiciaries of the several States.” How is this the case? Are not
the State judiciaries left uncontrolled as to the affairs of that
_State_ only? In this, as in all other cases, where there is a wise
distribution, power is commensurate to its object. With the mere
internal concerns of a State, Congress are to have nothing to do: In
no case but where the Union is in some measure concerned, are the
federal courts to have any jurisdiction. The State Judiciary will be a
satellite waiting upon its proper planet: That of the Union, like the
sun, cherishing and preserving a whole planetary system.
In regard to a possible ill construction of this authority, we must
depend upon our future legislature in this case as well as others, in
respect to which it is impracticable to define every thing, that it
will be provided for so as to occasion as little expense and distress
to individuals as can be. _In parting with the coercive authority
over the States as States, there must be a coercion allowed as to
individuals. The former power no man of common sense can any longer
seriously contend for; the latter is the only alternative._ Suppose
an objection should be made that the future legislature should not
ascertain salaries, because they might divide among themselves and
their officers all the revenue of the Union.(70) Will not every man see
how irrational it is to expect that any government can exist which is
to be fettered in its most necessary operations for fear of abuse?