The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1847-07-27

~AOSC- CNufatAOlA liltClCStc-
2. That among the common interests
and objects were-lst. Foreign commerce,
to the regulation of which the powers ol
the States severally were confessedly in
adequate and ID. Internal trade and
navigation, wherever the concurrence OF
two or more States was necessary to its
preservation, or where the expense Of its
maintenance should be equitally borne by
two or more States, and where Of course
those States must necessarily have voice
in its regulation and hence resulted the
constitutional grant of power to Congress,
'to regulate commerce with foreign ma
tions and among the States"
3. That being thus possessed both Of
the means and of the power which were
denied to the States respectively, Congress
became obligated by every consideration
/ Of good faith and common justice, to cher
ish and increase both the kinds Of COM
merce thus committed to lis care, by ex-
panding and extending the means of con-
ducting them, and Of aflording them all
those facilities and all that protection
which the States individually would have
afforded, had the revenue and the authori-
| ty been left to them.
4. That this obligation has ever been
recognized from the foundation of the
Government, and has been fulfilled par
tally by erecting lighthouses, building
piers for harbors, breakwaters, and sea-
walls, removing distractions in rivers,
and providing other facilities for the COM
lmerce carried on from the ports OF the At
Iantic coast and the same obligations have
been fulfilled to much less extent in pro-
viding similar facilities for s'commerce
among the States,' and the principle has
been most emphatically acknowledged to
embrace the Western lakes and rivers,
by appropriations for numerous light
houses upon them. which appropriations
have never been questioned in Congress
as wanting constitutional authority.
5. That thus, by series of acts
which have received the sanction of the
lpeople of the United States, and of every
Department of the Federal Government,
under all Administrations, the common
understanding of the intent and objects OF
| the trainers OF the constitution, in grant
ing to Congress the power to regulate
commerce, has been manifested, and has
been confirmed by the people, and this
Understanding has become as much part
ofthat instrument as any one OF its most
lexplicit provisions.
6. That the power to regulate COM
merce with foreign nations, and among
the States, and with the Indian tribes, is
on its face SO palpably in its whole extent
to each OF the subjects enumerated, equal
lly and in the same manner, as 10 render
any attempts to make il more explicit idle
and futile, and that those who admit the
righful application Of the power TO for
eign commerce, by facilitating and pro-
tecling its operations. by improving har-
bors and clearing out manageable rivers,
cannot consistently deny that 1t equally
authorizes similar facilities TO commerce
among the Srates.'
Z. That "loreign commerce" is de-
pendent upon internal trade for the dIstri-
button OF its freighis, and for the means
Of paving for them, so that whatever inn
proves the one advances the other, and
they are so inseparable that they should
be regarded as one that an export from
| the American shore to British port in
Canada. is as much foreign commerce as
If it had been directly to Liverpool, and
that an expectation 10 Liverpool neither
gains nor loses any of the characteristics
| OF foreign commerce BY the direetness or
circuitv Of the route whether it passes
through a custom-house on the British
side of the St. Lawrence, or descends
through that river and its connecting ca
mails to the ocean, or whether il passes
along the artificial communications and
natural streams Of any of tue Stales to the
| Atlantic.
/ s.. That the General Government, by
extending lis jurisdiction over lakes and
navigable rivers. suhjecting them TO the
same laws which prevail on the ocean,
and ON its bays and ports, not only for
purposes ofrevenue, but to give security
TO life and property, by the regulations
of steamboats,, has pFecluded itself from
denying that jurisdiction for any other le-
climate regulation Of commerce. IL it
has power 10 control and restrain, il must
hare the same power to protect, assist,
and facilitate !; and, If IL denies the iuris-
( dietion in fi1e enc mode ofaetion, il should
renounee it in the other.
o. That in consequence Of the pecu-
i liar dangers Of the navigation Of the lakes,
arising from the want Of harbors for shell
ter, and of the Western rivers from snags
and other distractions, there are no parts
of the United States more emphatically
| demanding the prompt and continued care
i OF the Government to diminish those dam
gers, and TO protect the property and life
exposed 10 them and that any one who
can regard provisions for those purposes
as sectional, local, and not national, must