STATE
29.12.19
government. This word is used in various senses. In its most enlarged sense, it signifies a self-sufficient body of persons united together in one community for the defence of their rights, and to do right and justice to foreigners. In this sense, the state means the whole people united into one body politic; (q. v.) and the state, and the people of the state, are equivalent expressions. 1 Pet. Cond. Rep. 37 to 39; 3 Dall. 93; 2 Dall. 425; 2 Wilson's Lect. 120; Dane's Appx. §50, p. 63 1 Story, Const. §361. In a more limited sense, the word `state' expresses merely the positive or actual organization of the legislative, or judicial powers; thus the actual government of the state is designated by the name of the state; hence the expression, the state has passed such a law, or prohibited such an act. State also means the section of territory occupied by a state, as the state of Pennsylvania.
2.
By the word state is also meant, more particularly, one of the
commonwealths which form the United States of America. The constitution
of the United States makes the following provisions in relation to the
states.
3.
Art. 1, s. 9, §5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported
from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of
commerce or re-venue to the ports of one state over those of another,
nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear,
or pay duties in another.
4.
- §6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of
appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from
time to time.
5.
- §7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and
no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall,
without the consent of congress, accept of any present, emolument,
office, or title of any kind whatever, from, any king, prince, or
foreign state.
6.
- Art. 1, s. 10, §1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit
bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in
payments of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto, or law
impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
7.
- §2. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any imposts
or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary
for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties
and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use
of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be
subject to the revision and control of congress. No state, shall,
without the consent of congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or
ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with
another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
8.
The district of Columbia and the territorial districts of the United
States, are not states within the meaning of the constitution and of the
judiciary act, so as to enable a citizen thereof to sue a citizen of
one of the states in the federal courts. 2 Cranch, 445; 1 Wheat. 91.
9.
The several states composing the United States are sovereign and
independent, in all things not surrendered to the national government by
the constitution, and are considered, on general principles, by each
other as foreign states, yet their mutual relations are rather those of
domestic independence, than of foreign alienation. 7 Cranch, 481; 3
Wheat. 324; 1 Greenl. Ev. §489, 504. Vide, generally, Mr. Madison's
report in the legislature of Virginia, January, 1800; 1 Story's Com. on
Const. §208; 1 Kent, Com. 189, note b; Grotius, B. 1, c. 1, s. 14; Id.
B. 3, c. 3, s. 2; Burlamaqui, vol. 2, pt. 1, c. 4, s. 9; Vattel, B. 1,
c. 1; 1 Toull. n. 202, note 1 Nation; Cicer. de Repub. 1. 1, s. 25.
STATE,
condition of persons. This word has various acceptations. If we inquire
into its origin, it will be found to come from the Latin status, which
is derived from the verb stare, sto, whence has been made statio, which
signifies the place where a person is located, stat, to fulfil the
obligations which are imposed upon him.
2.
State is that quality which belongs to a person in society, and which
secures to, and imposes upon him different rights and duties in
consequence of the difference of that quality.
3.
Although all men come from the hands of nature upon an equality, yet
there are among them marked differences. It is from nature that come the
distinctions of the sexes, fathers and children, of age and youth,
&c.
4.
The civil or municipal laws of each people, have added to these natural
qualities, distinctions which are purely civil and arbitrary, founded
on the manners of the people, or in the will of the legislature. Such
are the differences, which these laws have established between citizens
and aliens, between magistrates and subjects, and between freemen and
slaves; and those which exist in some countries between nobles and
plebeians, which differences are either unknown or contrary to natural
law.
5.
Although these latter distinctions are more particularly subject to the
civil or municipal law, because to it they owe their origin, it
nevertheless extends its authority over the natural qualities, not to
destroy or to weaken them, but to confirm them and to render them more
inviolable by positive rules and by certain maxims. This union of the
civil or municipal and natural law, form among men a third species of
differences which may be called mixed, because they participate of both,
and derive their principles from nature and the perfection of the law;
for example, infancy or the privileges which belong to it, have their
foundation in natural law; but the age and the term of these
prerogatives are determined by the civil or municipal law.
6.
Three sorts of different qualities which form the state or condition of
men may then be distinguished: those which are purely natural, those
purely civil, and those which are composed of the natural and civil or
municipal law. Vide 3 Bl. Com. 396; 1 Toull. n. 170, 171; Civil State.
