2. In the United States the sovereignty resides in the body of the people. Vide Rutherf. Inst. 282.
SOVEREIGN, Eng. law. The name of a gold coin of Great Britain of the value of one pound sterling.
SOVEREIGN STATE. One which governs itself independently of any foreign power.
SOVEREIGNTY. The
union and exercise of all human power possessed in a state; it is a
combination of all power; it is the power to do everything in a state
without accountability; to make laws, to execute and to apply them: to
impose and collect taxes, and, levy, contributions; to make war or
peace; to form treaties of alliance or of commerce with foreign nations,
and the like. Story on the Const. §207.
2.
Abstractedly, sovereignty resides in the body of the nation and belongs
to the people. But these powers are generally exercised by delegation.
3.
When analysed, sovereignty is naturally divided into three great
powers; namely, the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary; the
first is the power to make new laws, and to correct and repeal the old;
the second is the power to execute the laws both at home and abroad; and
the last is the power to apply the laws to particular facts; to judge
the disputes which arise among the citizens, and to punish crimes.
4.
Strictly speaking, in our republican forms of government, the absolute
sovereignty of the nation is in the people of the nation; (q. v.) and
the residuary sovereignty of each state, not granted to any of its
public functionaries, is in the people of the state. (q. v.) 2 Dall.
471; and vide, generally, 2 Dall. 433, 455; 3 Dall. 93; 1 Story, Const.
§208; 1 Toull. n. 20 Merl. Reper. h. t.
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