The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-07-07

whatever to legislae for them provide in any way for
he To control protect their personal rights their
rights of property if it should be upon them
On the other hand, the State has entire exclusive
limited jurisdiction over them II prescrbes all laws which
nave any relation TO their peculiar condition II is its i'm
peratve duty TO provide for their support and when
sry TO tax the people in order to deay the charges OF
ts public burden II can eiectual lawfully resist the
slightest interference of federal power with the subject
whether it be for good for evil and the federal govern
ment supreme it is in the exercise of its proper powers
would find itself utterly powerless carry into effect its
most benevolent intentions without the consent Of the State
itself On side therefore, there is sovereign power
the other not the slightest semblancc of authority fhere
he any object which is exclusively State object
clusvey within the province ofhs State exclusively with
in its jurisdiction and subject its provision and control
it is the condition of its INDECENT insane
This, then, being object left entirely within the
elusive province Of the States there would be
end any question with regard to the power of Congress
it, But will proceed and state several propositions
gether in Harmonious system, strengthening each 9th
and showing the extent of the money power Of this
government and the and the Of its restrc
ton That this government has power to tax for
object not committed to its jurisdiction that it has
power appropriate the public moneys to object for
which it not tax; that the public moneys, when they
have passed into other forms of property still in their
new forms subject to the restraints of the constitution
and finally that the United States hold all their property
in their ederatye character and that Congress has
greater power species of public property than
another and power any except for the
sutonal purposes of the government propositions
which clearly imbodied in the constitution and
bned in compact system and may therefore clearly be
established
The distinguished from Delaware alluded to one
two precedents where this government he said had d
vded the public moneys among the States had given
them to objects of public charity That honorable
is not now in his seat but should like to ask if either he
any other SENATOR enterans the opinion that this
ernment can divide the contents of the public treasury
among the States, bestow them gratuously upon OBJ
ecs of charity not connected with this Does
any supposewl any in this country maintain the
doctrinetha we may levy taxes duties to fill the
ury in order to divide its contents among the States for
State purposes, or for objects of public charity? If any
maintains any such doctrine, he goes to the utmost
verge of high federal power advocated thought
in the worst times of the republic Still there prece
dents said Yes sir you find preeedents for many
things that are unconstitutional You find prece-
dent for entering sovereign State and taking alien
iden and sending him of the country upon executive
suspicion You find precedent for going into the
States and sczng the printers and propreors of public
journals and filming and mprisoning them for speaking
disrespectfuy Of the President of Congress You
find precedent for putting the whole contents of the
ury into the hands Off corporation to manage instead of
leaving them in the treasury. You can find precedent
for ntruding into State and without any authority
sructing roads and canals there These precedents
which be found but they to overturn the const
tuition, are they entitled TO respect? et
The honorable senator from Delaware said that among
Others voted for the deposit net of 1885, did for
that act 1t was then strictly deposit act with power in
the Secretary of the Treasury call for the money when
wanted and it then only question between de-
posting the money in the State treasures the hand
or in the State banks the other voted for their de-
post iii the State treasures but for the subsequent
law which took away the power OF the executive depart
ment to call for that money and apply to the purposes Of
tonal act of distribution Will any one this late day.
maintain that you divide the moneys of the federal
among the States for State purposes? think
not But sir there who hold to very broad pow
ers with regard to the public money.
The power to lay and collect carries the money
the door OF the treasury and stops there IT lays and coli
lects the tax and goes further From its very
is an auxiliary power. The people do not tax themselves
for the sake of being taxed They do not authorize gov
erment to draw the money from their pockets for the sake
OF having it extracted and taken from them. That were
quite unnecessary There ulteor object and that is
to carry into execution the powers conferred upon this
government Those powers will not execute themselves
They cannot be executed without and money the
and TO furnish is the sole and only object of the
power The proper and necessary expense of
rying into execution the powers Of this government is the
utmost limit OF the revenue power The State
and the federal government alike limited Neither has
the right to lay tax to defay the expense of executing
the powers of the other Neither has the power for
object not committed to its jurisdiction, not within its
province not within the scope of its powers.
Chief Justice Marshall in the of Gibbons Ogden,
Wheaton, 1919, says
Congress is authorized lay and collect taxes &C. This
does not interfere with the of the States to for the
support of their governmens the exercise of that
power by the States an Of any portion Of the
State purposes they not doing what Congress empow
cred to do Congress not to tax for those
When, then each government is exercising the power Of
taxation, neither is exercising the power of the other
These very clear propositions,
Ii has sometimes been supposed that the expression in the
clause ito pay the debts and provide for
defence and general welfare of the United States enlarges
the powers of taxation So fur from it, the expression
strains the power The constitution ordained and
abshed, expressly declared in its preamble in many
words, in order to promote the general welfare This
is therefore, the avowed object of the constitution and the
ayowed object OF every clause contained in it, clearly
and fully if it reiterated at the end Of every
order to promote the general welfare But how is it to
be promoted? Obviously by the execution of the powers
granted and in other manner, and by other
The general welfare of the country in its largest
is of course the welfare Of the parts taken in the aggre-
gate The general prosperity of the United States is the
aggregate prosperity ofhe separate States The whole
far depends upon legislation is committed the federal
and State governments The federal government contrib
utes its share by the exercise Of its power the State gov
ermep contribute their share by the exercise of their
powers by far the largest result is accomplished by the
of the powers Of the States They prescribe the
law of personal rights and the rights of private property
and give protection to both and this lies at the very foun
dation of society The whole of modern cvliza-
ton rests upon it. The general welfare and intend
ed by the federal constitution and designed to be advanced
by it, is necessarily the limited result to he
piished by the exercise of its power
This expression therefore, in the clause to pay
tho debts and provide for the defence and general
welfare OF the United States instead of being
sion, is in fact restriction of power does author
the contraction of debt otherwise authorized
there is enumerated power borrow money IL does
not authorize the adoption of of defence
otherwise authorized there is enumerated power
rather series OF powers 1t does authorize the
prosecution OF any scheme for the promotion of the
eral welfare not otherwise authorized Every grant
ed by the constitution have already shown granted
i'm order promote the general welfare The clause