Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1829-02-03

So also power +" to coin money" would
doubles include that of regulating its
value" had not the latter power been ex-
pressly inserted. The term taxes, if stand
ing alone, would certainly have included
duties, imposts, and excuses. In another
clause it is said, mo tax or duties shall
be laid on exports, &c" Here the two
terms are used as synonymous. And in
another clause, where it is said "no State
shall lay any imposts, or duties &C." the
terms imposts and duties are synonymous.
Pleonasms, tautologies, and the promis-
cous use of terms and phrases, differing
in their shades Of meaning, always to be
expounded with reference to the context
and under the control of the general char
acter and manifest scope of the instru-
ment in which they are found) are to be
ascribed, sometimes to the purpose Of
greater caution, sometimes to the i'm
parfectieus Of language and sometimes
to the imperfection Of man himself. In
this view of the subject it was quite natural
however certainly the sneral power to
regulate trade might include power to
impose duties on it, not to omit it in a
clause enumerating the several modes OF
revenue, authorized by the Constitution.
In few cases could the eek MAORI caute-
la" occur with more claim to respect.
Nor can it be inferred, that power TO
regulate trade does not involve a power
to tax it, from the distinction made in the
original controversy with Great Britain,
between power to regulate trade with
the Colonies, and power to tax them.
A power to regulate trade between diffe-
rent parts of the Empire, was confessedly
necessny-a was admitted to lie, as far
as that was the case, in the British Par
lament (; the taxing part being at the same
time denied to the Parliament, and as
serted to be necessarily inherent iii the
Colonial Legislatures, as sufficient, aud
the only safe repositories of the taxing
power. So difficult was it, nevertheless,
to maintain The distinction in practice,
that the ingredient of revenue was occa-
sionally overlooked or. disregarded in the
British regulations, as in the duty on SUI
gar and molasses imported into the Col
onies. And it was fortunate that the at
tempt at an internal and direct tax, in the
case Of the Stamp Act, produced aradi-
cal examination Of the subject before a
regulation of trade with view to revenue
had grown into an established authority.
One thing at least is certain, that the
main and admitted object of the Parlia-
mentary regulations of trade with the
Colonies, was the encouragement of man
afdctares in Great Britain.
But the present question is unconnect-
with the former relations between Great
Britain and her colonies, which were Of
peculiar, a complicated, and in several
respects, of an underlined character. 1t
is simple question under the constitution
of the United States, whether the power
to regulate trade with foreign nations" as
distinct and substantive item in the emu
merated powers embraces the object of
encouraging by duties, restrictions, and
prohibitions, the manufactures and products
of the country And the affirmative must
be inferred from the following considera-
tons -
!. The meaning Of the phrase to reg
ulate trade, must be sought in the gene
raj use of it in other words, in the objects
to which the power was generally under
stod to be applicable, when the phrase was
inserted in the Constitution.
2. The power has been understood and
used by all commercial and manufacturing
nations, as embracing the object of en-
couraging manufactures. 1t is believ-
ed that not single exception can be
named.
3. This has been particularly the case
with Great Britain, whose commercial
vocabulary is the parent of ours. A prl-
mary object of her commercial regulations
is well known to have been the protec-
ton and encouragement of her manufac-
lures.
A. Such was understood to be proper
use of the power by the States most pre-
pared for manufacturing industry, while
retaining the power over their foreign
trade.
S. Such use of the power by Congress,
accords with the intention and expecta-
ton of the States, in transferring the
power over trade from themselves to the
Government of the United States. This
was emphatically the case in the Eastern,
the more manufacturing Members of the
Confederacv. Hear the lanpuape- held
in the Convention of Massachusetts -
By Mr.. Dawes, an advocate for the
Constitution, it was observed, Our
manufactures are another great subject
which has received no encouragement by
national duties on foreign manufactures,
and they never can by any authority in
the old Confederation. Again, elf we
wish to encourage oar oson manufactures,
to preserve our own commerce, to raise
the value Of our own lands, we must give
Congress the powers in question"