The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-01-07
WHOLE NO. ae1O.

lAOll TIC 0ldtGS, pIOpOIllOu5Q w
the ability to pay 1.-THE ability of some be-
ing derived, in great measure, not froE.
their exports, but from their fisheries, from
their frelghts, and from commerce at large.
In some of its branches altogether external
to the United States: the profits from all
4 which, being invisible and intangible, would
escape tax on exports. tax on imports
on the other hand, being tax on consump-
ton, which is in proportion to the ability CT
the consumers, whencesoever derived, Was
free from that inequality.
T. IF revenue be the sole object of a L.
gitimate1impost, and the encouragement 81
domestic articles be not within the power of
regulating trade, it would follow that. mo
/ nopolizing or unequal regulations Of foreigli
nations could be counteracted; that neither
| the staple articles of subsistence, nor TIE
essential implements for the public safety,
could, under any circumstances, be insured
| or fostered at home, by regulations of conf
merce, the usual and most convenient
mode Of providing for both; and that the
American navigation, though the source OF
naval defence, of cheapening competition
in carrying our valuable and bulky articles
( to market, and of an independent carriage
of them during foreign wars, when foreign
navigation might be withdrawn, must be at
once abandoned, or speedily destroyed: II
being evident that tonnage duty In foreign
ports against our vessels and an exemption
from such duty in our ports in favor OF
foreign vessels, must have the inevitable
effect of banishing ours from the ocean.
To assume power to protect our navl.
CATION, and the cultivation and fabrication
of all articles requisite for the public safety,
as incident to the war power, would be IL
more latitudnary construction OF the text
of the Constitution, than to consider it as
embraced by the specified power to Iegu-
late trade; power which has been exer-
cised by all nations for those purposes, and
which effects those purposes with less ofin-
reference with the authority and conven-
iency of the States, than might result from
internal and direct modes of encouraging
the articles, any of which modes would be
authorized, as far as deemed necessary
and proper" by considering the power az
an Incidental power.
! s. That the encouragement of manufac-
lures was an object of the power to regulate
trade, is proved by the use made of the
power for that object in the first session Of
the first Congress under the Constitution;
when among the members present were so
many who had been members of the FEEDER
al Convention which framed the Constitu-
ton, and of the State Conventions which
ratified it each of these classes consisting
also of members who had opposed, and who
had esf,oused, the Constitution i'll its actual
form II dues mol appear from the printed
proceedings of Congress on that occasion,
that the power was denied by any OF them.
And it may be remarked, that members
from Virginia. in particular, as well of the
anti-federxl as the federal party, the names
then Distinguishing those who had opposed
and those who had approved the Constitli-
ton, did not hesitate to propose duties and
to suggest even prohibitions in favor of sew
eral articles of her production. BY one a
duty was proposed on mineral coal, in favor
of the Virginia coal pits by another, duty
on hemp was proposed, to encourage the
growth of that article; and by third,
prohibition even Of foreign beef was sug-
gested as measure Of sound policy. See
Lloyd's Debates.
I a further evidence in support of the Con-
stitutional power to protect and foster
manufactures by regulations of trade, an
evidence that ought, of ITSELF 10 settle the
| question, is the uniform and practical sane
ton given IL the power, by the General
Government, for nssrly forty years; with "a
concurrence of acquiesct,ee OF every State
Government, throughout the same period !;
and, it may be added, through all tie yieis-
STUDIES of party which marked the pericu>
! No novel construction, however lngeniously
devised, or however respectable and patri-
otto its patrons, can Withstand the weight
of such authorities, or the unbroken current
of so prolonged and universal practice
And well it is that this cannot be done,
without the same intervention of the same
authority which made the Constitution. IF
it could be so done, there would be an END
TO that stability in Government, and in laws,
which is essential to good government AMI
good laws, a stability, the want Of which is
7 the impntatinn which has at all times been
levelled against Republicanism, with most
effect by its most dexterous adversarieE.
The imputation ought never, therefore, TO
he countenanced, by innovating constTuc-
tous, without any plea of a preGpitancy, or
"a paucity Of the constructive presidents
they oppose; without any appeal TO material
! facts newly brought to light; and without
4 any claim to u better knowledge of tho
original evils and Inconvenience, for which
remedies were needed, the very best keys
to the true object and meaning of all laws
and constitutions.
And may it not be fairly left to the unbi-
assed Judgment of all men Of experience
and of intelligence, to decide, which il
most to be relied on for sound and safe
test of the meaning Of Constitution, uni
form Interpretation by all the successive
authorities under it, commencing with its
birth, and continued for . long period,
through the varied state Of political con-
tests or the opinion of every~new Legisla--
ture, heated as it may be by the strife OF
parties-or warped, as often happens, by
the eager pursuit of some fAvorte object,
or carried away, possibly, by the po~erful
eloquence or captivating address OF u few