The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-11-26

execute tue idWS OI tue OulOu, tO suppress
instructions, and to repel invasions, y
and for no other uses. The militia cannot
be summoned for the invasion of country
without the limits of the United States.
They cannot be employed, therefore, to
execute treaties of offensive alliance, nor
in any case where military power Is needed
abroad, to enforce rights necessarily sought
in foreign lands. This must have been
understood by the trainers of the Consti-
tuition, aud it was for such reasons, doubt
less, that other powers to raise and main
tain military force were conferred upon
Congress, In addition to those which were
given over the militia By the same
section of the eighth article of the Con-
stitution, it was ordained, in words OF the
largest meaning, that Congress should
have power to "raise and support armies"
"a power not to be confounded with that
given over the militia of the country
Unlike that, It was unrestricted, unless 1t
be considered restriction that approprla-
ations of money to the use of raising and
supporting armies were forbidden for a
longer term than two years. In one sense
this was practical restriction. Without
appropriations no army can be maintained,
and the limited period for which appru-
priations can be made enables the people
to pass Judgment upon the maintenance
and even existence of the army every two
years, and in every new Congress. But
IN the clause comforting authority to raise
armies, no limitation Is imposed other
than this indirect one, either upon the
magnitude of the force which Congress is
empowered to raise, or upon the uses for
which it may be employed, or upon the
mode in which the army may be raised.
If there be any restriction upon the mode
of exercising the power, it must be found
elsewhere than in the clause OF the Con-
stitution that conferred it. And if a
restricted mode of exercise was intended,
it is remarkable that it was not expressed,
when limitations were so carefully imposed
upon the power given to call forth the
militia-and, more especially, when, as it
appears from the prohibition of appropri-
ations for the army for longer time than
two years, the subject of limiting the
power was directly before the minds of
the authors of the Constitution.
This part of the Constitution, like every
other, must be held to mean what its
trainers, and the people who adopted it,
intended il should mean. We are not at
liberty to read it in any other sense. We
cannot insert restrictions upon powers
given In unlimited terms, any. more than
we can strike out restrictions imposed.
There is sometimes great confusion of
ideas in the consideration of questions
arising under the Constitution of the
United States, caused by misapprehen-
sion of well-recognised and oft repeated
principle. It is said, and truly said, that
the Federal Government is one of limited
powers. 1t has no other than such as are
expressly given to it, and such as Gin the
language of the Constitution itself care
necessary aud proper for carrying into
execution" the powers expressly given.-
BY the teuth article of the amendments,
it is ordained that the powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people. Of course there can be no
presumption in favor uf the existence of a
power sought to be exercised by Congress.
It must be found in the Constitution. But
this principle is nisapp.ied when it is used,
az is sometimes the case, to restrict the
right to exercise power expressly given.
1t is of value when the inquiry is whether
a power has been conferred, but of no
avail to strip a power given in general
terms, of any of its attributes. The powers
of the Federal Government are limited In
number, not in their nature. A power
vested in Congress is as ample as it would
be if possessed by any other legislature,
none .he less because held by the Federal
Government. 1t is not enlarged or dimin-
ished by the character Of its possessor.-
Congress has power to borrow money. LIS
it any less than the power of State to
borrow money? Because the Federal
Government has not all the powers which
a State Government has, will it be con-
tended that it cannot borrow money, OF
regulate commerce, or fix standard OF
weights and measures, in the same way,
bv the same means, and to tho same ex-
tent as any State might have done had NO
Federal Constitution ever been formed
IF not. and surely this will not be conten-
ded, why is not the Federal power. to raise
armies as large and as unfettered in the
mode in which it may be exercised as was
the power to raise armies possessed by the
States before 1887, and possessed by them
now. in time of war? If they were not