In time of war, however,
these militias come under the control of the central government. Thus
every American citizen lives under two governments, the functions of
which are clearly and intelligibly distinct.
To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the
Constitution created a "system of United States courts extending
throughout the states, empowered to define the boundaries of federal
authority, and to enforce its decisions by federal power." This
omnipresent federal judiciary was undoubtedly the most important
creation of the statesmen who framed the Constitution. The closely-knit
relations which it established between the states contributed powerfully
to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity throughout the whole
country. The United States today cling together with a coherency far
greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or league. Yet the
primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly that of a
permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic
sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its
neighbours and relegated its international interests to the care of a
central council in which all the states were alike represented and a
central tribunal endowed with purely judicial functions of
interpretation.
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