The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer., 1863-07-03

armee in the several battles at Chancel-
lorsville, are so recent as to be quite ia.
miliar to the public.-Phah Inquirer.
\ - IA ~ |t+r-ett--- - .r-r-- L'' = 7
JUDGE TANEY'S DECISION,
ON THE TREASURY REGULATIONS RE-
SPECTING THE INTERNAL COMMERCE
l1 OF MARYLAND.
Chief Justice Taney has just rendered
an important decision in relation to the
regulations of the Secretary of the Treas
ury with regard to the Internal Commerce
of Maryland. The claimant in the case
was George w. Carpenter, of Charles
County, Maryland. He had purchased
goods in Baltimore and failed to obtain a
permit, because he refused to comply
with the regulations prescribed by the
Treasury Department. The goods were
therefore seized by the Collector. In con,
cluding his remarks and making his deci.
sion, Judge fancy said :1t N hJu'la,
"Moreover, these regulations have no
analogy to the rules and regulations which
the Executive Department. may prescribe
for the government of its officers in carry,
ing into execution a law of Congress- s.
They are in their scope legislative acts,
changing the law as it stood before, not
according to the Judgment and discretion
Of the Legislature, but according to the
discretion and Judgment of the Secretary.
They compel the inhabitantsiof of particu.
lar portion of the State, where the trade
was formerly y free, to exhibit to the off.
GERS of the United States, an invoice Of
their purchases made for domestic use
compel them to take oaths not required
by any previous law; to ask and obtain
permission to carry home what they had
purchased; to pay the Collector for his
permission, and iinfiict as penalty, the
forfeiture of the whole of the goods men
toned in the permit, if the Custom House
officer is deceived in any other particular.
These are serious and important alfera-
tions In the law, and if they can constitu-
tionally be made, it must be done by the
Legislative power, and not by an officer
of the Executive branch Of the Govern
ment, whose duty it is to execute the law,
not to make it; and 1 think that Con-
gress did not intend nor attempt to au-
thorize the regulations which the Secreta-
ry has prescribed, and that the eopstruc-
tion he has given to these laws is an err
roneous one. on.H sey'i.s,! IS Gr "4
Buff these regulations had been made
directly by Congress they could not be
sustained by Court of Justice. whose
duty it is to administer the law according
to the Constitution of the United States.
For from the commencement of the Gov
ernment to this day, it has been admitted
on all hands, and repeatedly decided by
the Supreme Court, thatthe United States
have no right to interfere with the inter-
nal and domestic, trade of State. 81 They
have no right to compelit to pass through
their Custom House, nor, to tax it. This
is so plainly set forth in the Constitution
that, is has never been supposed to be open
to- controversy or question: Undoubted-
ly, the United States authorities may take
proper means to prevent trade or inter.
course with the enemy But it does not
by any means follow that they may disre-
gard the limits of all their own powers as
IPrescribed by the Constitution, or the
rights and powers reserved to the States
and the people. 1aYHri
CA civil war, or any other war, does not
enlarge the powers of the Federal Govern
ment over the States or the people, beyond
what the compact has given to it in time
of war IA state of war does not annual
the tenth article of the amendment to the
Constitution, which declares that "the
powers, not delegated to the United States
by, the Constitution nor prohibited by 1t
to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, lor to the people. Nor does
a civil war, or any other war, absolve the
judicial department fromithe duty of MAIN
tanning, with an even and firm hand, the
rights and powers of ethe Federal Govern
ment and of thejStates and of the. citizen
las they are written. in the Constitation,
which every Judge is sworn to support
Upon, the whole, the Court is Of opinion
that the regulations in question are illegal