Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1847-07-21
Resolutions adopted at the C{iica@
go Convention.

The Convention submit to their fellow citi-
zens and to the Federal Government the fol-
lowing propositions expressing their own
sentiments and those of their constituents:
LIST. That the Constitution of the United
States was framed by practical men, for prac-
teal purposes, declared in its preamble. "To
provide for the common defence, to promote the
general welfare, and to secure the blessings of
liberty" and was mainly designed to create a
government whose functions should be adequate
to the protection of the common interests of all
the States, or of two or more of them, which
could not be maintained by the action of the
separated States. That in strict accordance
with this object, the revenues derived from com
merce were surrendered TO the general govern
ment, with the express understanding that they
should be applied to the promotion of those COM
mon interests.
2. That among those common interests and
objects were-lst. Foreign Commerce, to the
regulation of which the powers Of the States
severally were contessedly inadequate, and I'd.
Internal! trade and navigation, wherever the con
currence of two or more States was necessary
to its preservation, or where the expense of its
maintena nee Should be equitaby borne by two,
or more States, and where, of course, those
States must necessarily have a voice in its reg
grant of power to Congress, 'to regulate COM
merce with foreign nations and among the
States.''
8. That being thus possessed both of the
means and of the power which were defined to
the States respectively, Congress became OBJ
llgated by every consideration of good faith and
common Justice to cherish and increase both the
kinds of commerce thus committed to its care,
by expanding and extending the means of con-
Quoting them, and of affording them all those
facilities and all that protection which the States
individually would have afforded, had the rev.
enue and the authority been left to them.
A. That this obligation has ever been fulfill
ed partially, by erecting lighthouses, building
piers for harbors. breakwaters and sea-walls,
removing obstructions in rivers and providing
other facilities for the commerce carried on
from ports on the Atlantic coast: and the same
obligations have been fulfilled TO much less
extent in providing similar facilities for s'com-
MERGE among the States" and that the princi-
pie has been NEST emphatically acknowledged
to embrace the western lakes and rivers by ap-
preparations for numerous lighthouses upon
them, which appropriations have never been
questioned in Congress as wanting constltu-
tional authority.
b. That thus by series of acts which have
IeCeiNeu Tic sdDCtlOu OF the people OF the uni
ted States and of every department of the Fed
eral Government, under all administrations, the
common understanding of the intent and objects
of the trainers of the Constitution in granting
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 Of that instrument as any one
its most explicit provisions.
6. That the power "to regulate commerce
with Foreign Nations and among the States
and with the Indian tribes" is on its face SO
palpably applicable in its whole extent to each
of the subjects enumerated equally and in the
| same manner, as to render any attempts to man
ner as to render any attempts to make it more
explicit idle and futile, and that those who ad-
NIT the rightful application of the power to
Foreign Commerce, by facilitating and protec-
ting its operations by improving Harbors and
clearing out navigable rivers, cannot consistent
ly deny that itequally authorizes similar faciIi-
ties to commerce among the States
] =. That "Foreign Commerce" is dependent