The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-29

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lures, without any legal disability to either that
the constitution regarded national interest in
preference to another and that il never was design
ed that such preference specially, should be estab-
lished by national legislation.
These were the grounds, doubtless, upon which
this provision Of the constitution was indicated and
expounded by its friends and trainers. The wise
men who framed our system, knew, moreover, that
the freedom Of property and industry, from the indehn
ite despotism OF society the best security
against those unjust laws by which social liberty is
so often injured and that despotsm of msjortes by
which il had been often destroyed. And it is
this wise and just principle which denies even to the
sovereignty of the people the right to take the private
property of individuals, because the conventional
by which that species Of sovereignty was created
conceded right to arJor national purposes, but with
held right to tax for individual ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
Now does any one believe that il It had been pro-
posed in forming the constitution, to have invested
Congress with power lover and above that of ex-
acting contributions for public use) of protecting The
mama aeiures Of The country at the expense of any of
the other great interests, it would not have beer
spurned with indignation Andyet the same effect is
produced by system Of legislation and construction
at war with every principle Of justice and common
sense. They contend, moreover, that as the power
Of protecting manufactures was not expressly pro-
hlbed by the constitution, il may and ought to be
exercised. Let us examine for moment this falla-
cy. Let US suppose the constitution had said that
the government should have the power Of taking
away the life of one man for the benefit of another,
would this have been free government But
being silent upon this point, can the government ex-
ercise the power because it has not been expressly
prohibited And what prohibits 1t, but the para
mount human right to the enjoyment of life twas
this paramount right which made 1t unnecessary to
stpuate in our constitutions against the killing one
man for the benefit Of another. Now the right OF
each man to the benefit of his own labor, by which
only life Gun he preserved, is as much natural
right as the right to life ITSELF nor was there any
more need to stipulate against actual social com.
pacts for its safety, than for the safety Of life itself
II is nothing less than an evasion Of the right to
live, to take away the products Of labor, by which
men live, and to give them to other men.
But, it is argued, that if all this be true,
and there is no express power under the
taxing clause to protect manufactures, yet it
can be done constitutionOly, under the author
ity given to Congress 10 regulate commerce
foreign and domestic; and it was under this
clause, that Mr. Clay, in 1924, expressly de-
clared that the power alone derived. He
has many followers in this doctrine, and es.
pecially from Massachusetts, and New England
Now the answer to such a heresy is a ready
one. In the first place, the power to regulate COM
nerce could never have been intended to convey to
Congress indefinite power of taxation, because a
definite power of taxation had been previously ex
pressed Specification precludes inference at least
# the Inference contradcts the specification Besides
the subject Of taxation had been expressly dis
posed of in the previous part Of the constitution, it
cannot be fairly supposed that it strictly re-
sumed, and the specification approprates duties
TO the of the United States, the tacit resumption
cannot also contain hidden power to levy duties
for the benefit Of particular class or occupation,
The reconcile powers contained in the words "to
regulate commerce." may find objects for their oper
alton, as they are mutifarious, without adding to
the catalogue power expressly given in another
and previous clause of the constitution. This on
the principles Of correct construction, would seem to
be decisive; but push the examination little further
By such construction they would invest Congress
with an internal power over persons and things not
repre- sented in that body, but both prohibited to it,
and reserved to the State legislatures in which they
were represented. The whole wealth and property
of the country more nearly connected with com.
merce than roads with war, and the mode of
reasoning in that case would embrace agriculture
and invest Congress with power of regulating that
also, as is now attempted by making it tributary to
manufactures.
The great object of the constitution was
to prevent this illicit intercourse between con-
struction, and lust Of power-"no capitation or
other direct lar shall be laid unless in proportion 10
shall be laid on articles erported-
preference shall be giuen by any regulation of COM
merce or revenue ports of one State those Of
other" The object of these restrictions to de-
prive Congress of the power Of exercising local or
personal partialities. Now protecting duties oper-
ate in fact direct, capation tax for the bene
fit Of one occupation, imposed upon all others, by
legal necessity The value of agricultural staples
must long depend upon our exchanges with foreign
nations. They are consumers Of our breadstuffs,
cotton, tobacco, fish, and numerous other articles.
Lately we have become exporters Of even cheese and
ice, to Great Britain. Consumers neither exist now
nor can be speedily created at home; BESIDES these
foreigners utterly unable to pay in specie for
the products we can spare, and if they could, the
specie would depreciae to the paper money, unless
we could export it, not to buy more specie, but arti
ces of consumption. A prohibition, therefore, COM
plete, or partial, of the articles of consumption in
which agrculturists must receive payment, is in sub
stance, double tax upon exports. 1t lessons
their value and enhances the price of the few articles
of consumption they can produce at home. "No
preference shall be giusn by any regulation Of CONNER
revenue to ports Of State those of another"
In all these prohibitions, we find the great principle
of interdicting to Congress power of regulating
the wealth or prosperity Of particular States or occu
pations, carefully enforced Ports is here put for
people. Inanmate things can have no rights, and