Litchfield enquirer., 1874-02-05

i serted, and if extended tc steam vessels, why not to steam cars, since they were i alike unknown when the Constitution was l adopted? The opinion Ill this cass. (Gib-
 bons Vs. Ogden) was delivered by Chief l Justice Marshall, and 1t discussed so ably the very. question we are now consider l ing. viz, the nature and extent of the i power given to Congress to regulate com 1 merce, that we feel constrained to quote from it as follows:
 i ''1he subject to be regulated is con- i merce, and our constitution being, as was 1 aptly said at the bar, (by MT. Webster, ] one of enumeration and not of definition. to ascertain the extent of the power, be- comes necessary to settle the meaning of l the word. The counsel of the appellee would limit 1t to traffic, to buying and sell i ing, or the Interchange of commodities, and do not admit that 1t comprehends nav ] igation. This would restrict general i term applicable to many objects to one of l it's slgnlfcatiOns. Commerce undoubted- ly is traffic; but it Is something more; it IS intercourse. It describes the commer- cial intercourse between nations and parts of nations in all it's branches, and is regu- lated by prescribing rules for carrying On that intercourse" >ca l And again: -zE | ''To what commerce does this power ex- i tend? The constitution informs us. to commerce with foreign nations and among the several states. and with the Indian ! tribes. It has, we believe, been univer- sally admitted that these words compre- bend every species of commercial inter course between the United States and for eign nations. No sort of trade can be carried on between this country and any other to which this power does not ex- tend. It has been truly said that com merce, as the word is used in the consti. tuition is unit, every part of which is indicated by the term. If this be the ad- mitted meaning of the word, in its appli- nation to foreign nations, it must carry the same meaning throughout the sen- tence, and remain unit, unless there be- come plain, ineligible clause which al- ters it. The object to which the power is next applied IS to commerce ''among the sev- eral states" The word 'samong" means intermingled with. A thing which is among others is intermingled with them. Commerce among the states cannot stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the in- terior. It Is not intended to say that these words comprehend that commerce which Is completely internal, which is carried on between man and man in a state, and which does not extend to or af- feet other states. Such 8 power would be inconvenient, and certainly is not neces- sary. Comprehensive as the word 'samong" IS, it may very properly be restricted to that commerce which concerns more states than one. The phrase is not one which would probably have been selected to in- dicate the completely interior traffic of @ state. because 1t is not an apt phrase for that purpose, and the enumeration of the particular classes of commerce to which the power was to be extended, would not have been made had the intention been to extend the power to every description. The enumeratian pre-supposes something not enumerated, and that something if we regard the language or the subject of the sentence, must be the exclusively inc ternal commerce of state. And here snl|aEst ss tbe fre, Ia of tbs as,s
 Court, perhaps the best definition of the line which divides the state from the Fed eral jurisdiction, which can any where be found. It is in the following words:
 ''The genius of the character of the whole government seems to be that its action is to be applied to all the internal con cerns of the nation, and to those internal concerns which affect the states generally but not to those which are completed with-- in particular state, which do not affect other states, and with which it is not nec- essary to interfere for the purpose of ex- ecuting some of the general powers of the government. The completely internal commerce of state then may be consid- cred as reserve for the state itself
 After showing that in regulating com merce with foreign nations the power of congress does not stop at the jurisdiction al limits of the several states, but may be exercised wherever the subject exists, the court proceeds to say: ''This principle is, if possible, still more clear when applied to commerce among the several states. They join each other-in which case they are separated by 8 mathematical line; or they are remote from each other-in which case other state lines lie between them. What is commerce. among them, and how is it to be conducted? Can trading expedition between two adjoining states commence and terminate outside of each? And if the trading intercourse be between two states remote from each other, must it not commence in one, terminate in the other, and probably pass through third? Commerce among the states must of ne- cessity be commerce with the states.n ! 3
 Judge Cooly, in his work on Constitu- tional Limitation, after referring to this and other cases on the suject, says: ''It is not doubted that congress has the power to go beyond the general regulations of commerce which it is accustomed to es-- Al A4 ko mute direction, if it shall be deemed ad- ground shall be covered by these direc- tions, the exercise of state power is exclu ded. Congress may establish Police reg ulations as we'll as the state, confining their operations to subjects over which it is given control by the constitution. Cooley on Constitutional Limitation, 5S6. } The very question now under considera- ton is discussed and described by Mfr. Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, n the case of Gray vs. The Clinton Bridge Company, reported by the American. Law Register in May, 1868. From the very able and conclusive opin- ion in that case, we quote as follows: Navigation, however, is only one of the elements of commerce. It is an, element of commerce. because it affords the means of transporting passengers and merchan- disc, the interchange of which is com merce itself. Any other mode of effect ing this would be as much an element of commerce as navigation. When this trans- portatien or interchange of commodities is carried on by land, it is commerce as we'll as when carried on by water, and the power of congress to regulate it is as am pie in the one case as in the other The commerce among the states spoken of in the constitution must, at the time that instrument was adopted, have been main ly of this character, for the steam-boat, which has created our great internal com, merce on the rivers- was then unknown. Another means of transportation, equal in importance to the steamboat has also come into existence since the constitution | was adopted; a means by which merchan- disc is transported across states and kings 1 doms in the same vehicle in which it tstart- ed. The railroad now shares with the steamboat the monopoly of the carrying