Though the terms of the Constitution may not be varied, or its grants of authority limited by abstract doctrines of private rights and of political justice and expediency, the words of each clause are to be interpreted in the light of the other provisions of the Constitution. The Constitution is a logical whole, each provision of which is an integral part thereof, and it is, therefore, logically proper, and indeed imperative, to construe one part in the light of the provisions of all the other parts.42

This principle has been of dominant force in the construction of the Constitution.

The principle that the Constitution is to be interpreted in the light of the general purpose for the attainment of which it was adopted"coupled with the fact that many of its terms are general in character, has made possible and legitimate two schools of constructionists - the Loose or Nationalistic school, and the Strict or States' Rights school - each dependent upon a belief held as to the general end which the framers of the Constitution had in mind when that instrument was drafted. The Strict or States' Rights constructionist has not always been one who would deny sovereignty or efficiency to the National Government. Thus, Taney, a leader of the strict constructionists, never for a moment doubted the sovereignty of the General Government, or, as he showed in his decision in Ableman v. Booth, the supremacy of its laws and of its agents over the laws and agents of the States. He did believe, however, that the sovereign national laws should be kept within as limited a space as possible. This he showed from the first year of his chief-justiceship.

42 "In construing the Constitution of the United States we are, in the first instance, to consider what are its nature and objects, its scope and design, as apparent from the structure of the instrument, viewed as a whole, and also viewed in its component parts." Story, Commentaries, § 405.

From the general nature and intent of the Constitution have been deduced, not to mention other doctrines, the denial of the right of secession, the power of the courts to hold void state or federal laws contrary to the Constitution, the jurisdiction of the federal courts to entertain appeals from the highest state courts in cases in which a federal right, privilege, or immunity has been up and denied, the immunity of federal governmental agencies from interference on the part of the States by taxation or otherwise, the immunity of state agencies from federal taxation, the exclusive federal jurisdiction in matters of naturalization, and the liberal construction of "implied" powers generally.