The Wilson Act and the Constitution is a mutual covenant. The new citizen in return for the blessings of govern ment, the privilege of living in an organ ized society and sharing in its protection, relinquishes a certain amount of personal freedom as well as the right to foreign protection. The state promises a cer tain amount of opportunity and protec tion. In every one of the American states the citizen expressly or impliedly subscribes to the doctrine that the pub lic welfare is the highest law, and promises to so use his own rights as not to injure those of others. He agrees to yield obedience to and concedes to the government of the state the power to pass laws for the furtherance of the public good, practically conceding that he no longer claims any right to prop erty or to liberty in that which is injuri ous to the state as a whole. He how ever retains his natural rights in all things else. This is the first and great commandment of every civilized society. It is the gist of the fifth and fourteenth amendments, which have been adopted into the constitutions of practically all if not all of the American states, and it expresses the unwritten constitution of every civilized country. This is a citi zenship of the state, and when the American colonists consented to the formation of the new central govern ment and to yield obedience thereto, they surrendered to it no jurisdiction in these matters nor withdrew any of their allegiance from their respective states in so far as they were concerned. But there was an allegiance which they yielded to the central government and which they withdrew from the several states. It was in things especially national; in things pertaining to the currency, the postal system, peace and war, to inter course with foreign nations, and above all interstate commerce. Formerly, per haps, the state had control of these
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things, that is to say in the interregnum between the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the Constitution. Before this time Great Britain perhaps had control of these things. At any rate it had control over intercourse with foreign nations. Now there was a new social compact made. The citizen re affirmed his former contract with his state in all things except those which were national and commercial. As far as these things were concerned he changed his sovereign. He agreed to yield obedi ence henceforth to the central govern ment in so far as they were concerned, but he took back and retained his natural rights in and concerning them in so far as his former state was concerned. Henceforth the compact ran that in so far as the right to engage in and enjoy the privileges of interstate commerce and commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes was concerned, he should be free from all restrictions and all control except that which should be imposed by the central government. He had yielded to that central government, however, no control over his private and his social life. He had agreed with the citizens of his own state that he should so use his rights and liberty as not to injure the rights and liberty of others. He had agreed to respect the morals and ideals of the state. He had agreed to consider as injurious and as a nuisance to others that which the enlightened intelligence of the majority, as repre sented in the state constitutions and in the decisions of the state courts, should so consider, and not to use or sell or deal in that which the public policy of his state forbade. His right to be free and unmolested in so far as interstate commerce was concerned, except when Congress itself should desire to interfere, did not, however, confer upon him or imply the right to use or sell or give
