From the New York Packet. Friday, January 25, 1788. To the People of the State of New York.
The SIXTH and last class consists of the several powers and provisions by which efficacy is given to all the rest. Of these the first is the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.
“This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Without this provision, the Constitution would be evidently and radically defective. To be fully sensible of this, we need only suppose for a moment that the supremacy of the State constitutions had been left complete. In the first place, as these constitutions invest the State legislatures with absolute sovereignty, in all cases not excepted by the existing articles of Confederation, all the authorities contained in the proposed Constitution would have been annulled.
“The Senators and Representatives, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.”
PUBLIUS.