Lawyers, indeed, tell us that the eminent domain is in the
particular State, and that all escheats are to the State, not to
the United States. All escheats of private estates, but no
public or general escheats. But this has nothing to do with the
public domain. The United States are the dominus, but they have,
by the constitution, divided the powers of government between a
General government and particular State governments, and ordained
that all matters of a general nature, common to all the States,
should be placed under the supreme control of the former, and all
matters of a private or particular character under the supreme
control of the latter. The eminent domain of private estates is
in the particular State, but the sovereign authority in the
particular State is that of the United States expressing itself
through the State government. The United States, in the States
as well as out of them, is the dominus, as the States
respectively would soon find if they were to undertake to
alienate any part of their domain to a foreign power, or even to
the citizens or subjects of a foreign State, as is also evident
from the fact that the United States, in the way prescribed by
the constitution, may enlarge or contract at will the rights and
powers of the States. The mistake on this point grows out of the
habit of restricting the action of the United States to the
General government, and not recollecting that the United States
govern one class of subjects through the General government and
another class through State governments, but that it is one and
the same authority that governs in both.
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