This cause is now before us on the bill of complaint and the demurrer thereto.
The questions thus presented are two: First, whether the allegations of the bill disclose the case of a controversy between the state of Missouri and the state of Illinois and a citizen thereof, within the meaning of the Constitution and statutes of the United States, which create and define the original jurisdiction of this court; and, second, whether, if it be held that the allegations of the bill do present such a controversy, they are sufficient to entitle the state of Missouri to the equitable relief prayed for.
The question whether the acts of one state in seeking to promote the health and prosperity of its inhabitants by a system of public works, which endangers the health and prosperity of the inhabitants of another and adjacent state, would create a sufficient basis for a controversy, in the sense of the Constitution, would be readily answered in the affirmative if regard were to be had only to the language of that instrument.
'The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. . . . The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority, . . . to controversies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state. . . . In all cases, . . . in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction.' Const. art. 3.
As there is no definition or description, contained in the Constitution, of the kind and nature of the controversies that should or might arise under these provisions, it might be supposed that, in all cases wherein one state should institute legal proceedings against another, the original jurisdiction of this court would attach.
But in this, as in other instances, when called upon to construe and apply a provision of the Constitution of the United States, we must look, not merely to its language, but to its historical origin, and to those decisions of this court in which its meaning and the scope of its operation have received deliberate consideration.
After the Declaration of Independence the united colonies, through delegates appointed by each of the colonies, considered articles of confederation, which were debated from day to day, and from time to time, for two years, and were on July 9, 1778, ratified by ten states; by New Jersey on November 26 of the same year; by Delaware on the 23d of February, 1779, and by Maryland on March 1, 1781.
The 1st article was as follows: 'The style of this confederacy shall be 'The United States of America."
The 9th article contained, among other provisions, the following: