The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-05-05

manifestly unjust as to merit universal con
domination.
From the Congressional Record.
The House being in Committee of the Whole ant
having under consideration the pill gu. r. sod tt
reduce taxation and simplify the laws IN relation
the collection OF revenue
Mr.. Shaw said:
Mr.. Chairman: No other country has its
treasury so incumbered with its riches, and
no other people are so appalled, at the posi-
BILE consequences of their patient submission
to excessive taxation as the people of the
United States Our boundless resources have
enabled us to respond so generously to the
unjust exactions of the Government as to
cause an annual accumulation of money IN the
| Treasury so large as to embarrass business
and imperil the financial system OF the coun-
try. Such condition Of prosperity needs no
liberal or latitudinarian construction of the
organic law to foster trade and encourage
manufactures, but the best interest of each
alike depends on the strictest Interpretation
of the Constitution.
In the plain import of its language there is
safety, but on the uncertain and treacherous
sea of liberal construction there may be ship
wreck and disaster.
The trainers of the Constitution adopted a
plain style, without the ambiguity which in
later years resorts to phrases unknown to Its
letter and spirit to discover its meaning and
to measure its powers. There have hereto
fore been parties which disputed whether the
Federal Government was the principal or the
agent, and whether the people were the mas
Ter and the Government the servant; but it
remained for the protection" policy to bring
in the other common-law relations of parent
and child, and guardian and ward. But can
not believe that the framaFs of the Constitp-
ton ever intended that in its Interpretation
the metaphors of rhetoric should become the
premises of logic. For our guidance in con-
STRUNG this wonderful instrument there is
transmitted to us the official proceedings of
the convention that formulated it, which dis
close the purposes intended by its trainers;
and we have the proceedings of the conven.
tions in the States which ratified and adopted
it TO teach us what powers were intended to
be conferred upon the Federal Government
and the legislative branch thereof. In these
we shall find safer guide to correct conclu-
sions than the fanciful similitude of relations
drawn from the imagination.
To each of these authorities | will appeal
for the fundamental reasons upon which
shall rely in opposing the continuance of a
system of taxation that | believe to be uncon-
stitutional in its inception and hurtful through
out all its long continuance. In examining
them find that the proposition to confer on
Congress the power ''to promote manutac-
lures was brought before the Federal Con-
vention on the 18th of May, 1877, in a series
of resolutions proposing to consider the pro-
priety of comforting on the Government addi-
tional powers, and, among others, the follow
ing were referred to q select committee:
To give to Congress the power to secure to literary
authors their copyrights for a limited time.
To encourage by proper premiums and provisions
the advancement OF useful knowledge and discov-
cries.
To establish public iastititiogs, reyqFds and i'm
munities for the promotion OF agrlcpiIuFe' COM
meree trades, and manuiaeIureS.
1t became the duty of that select commit.
tee. in its investigation ofthe subjects referred
to it, TO inquire into the expediency of invest
ing Congress with powers ''for the promotion"
of manufactures, and in the event that the
committee should find it 'expedient, it then
became its duty further to ascertain the
ssproper premiums and provisions" over which
Congress should be invested with power; what
public institutions, rewards, and immuni-
ties'' Congress should be authorized to estab-
lish for the promotion of agriculture, COM
merce, trade, and manufactures. After due
elaboration, from the 18th of August to the
9Th of September, the committee determined
that the only power which should be conferred
was that contained in the clause of the Con.
stitution which provides that Congress shall
have power
To promote the progress of seiSnGe and useful
arts by securing for limited times to authors and in
ventors the exclusive right their respective writ
ings and discoveries.
Thus the committee virtually rejected the
proposition to empower Congress to promote
manufactures by any other means than
those lust mentioned. That the phrase fuse
fnl arts embraces and describes the manu-
featuring art no one will deny, and that the
manufacturing art may be promoted after the
manner prescribed by tha. clause of the Con-
stitution heretofore recited all will readily
admit, but the limitation which that clause
imposes upon the means to be employed for
its promotion effectively excludes all other
means; hence it follows as logical sequence
that all efforts to promote the manufacturing
art by the imposition of prohibitory or re-
strictive duties are not based upon any pow
err to be found in the Constitution.
The report of the select committee, which
was sustained by the convention, clearly in
d;cates the purpose of the trainers of the
Constitution in relation to manufactures.
The rejected propositions must have made
manufactures the subject of the thought and
deliberation of the convention, which, after
discussing it for seventeen days, solemnly de-
termined that the only power over manu-
features which it would confer on Congress
was that of securing temporarily to inventors
the exclusive advantages which might result
from their discoveries. This action of the
select committee and the convention can not
be otherwise construed than as a virtual rejec-
ton of the proposition to invest Congress with
any other power relating to manufactures.
When, therefore, ] find the Federal conven-
40, nt INT,
0 specific power | cannot believe ito have in
tended that the power refused should be de-
rived by implication from any clause ofthe in
strument. Therefore | can not assent to that
construction of the taxing clause which con-
tends for the power to lay and collect taxes
for any other purpose than that of revenue.
Mr.. Clay, the ablest of all the advocates Of
protective policy, as early as 1924, replying
to Mr.. Barbour, Of Virginia, said:
The gentleman from Virginia has entirely miE-
rely. IL Is that which gives to Congress the power
| 10 regulate commerce with foreign nations.
| Il has been shown that in the propositions
submitted to the SELECT committee of the Fed
eral convention there vas clause comforting
on Congress power ITO promote agriculture,
commerce, trades, and manufactures" and
that the clause was rejected so far as it ap-
piled to agriculture, trade, and manufactures.
| But Congress was authorized to regulate
one of the subjects, namely, commerce. Ev-
identity the rejection of three of the subjects
/ can not be construed as including any or all Of
them in the power to regulate the one retain
| ed. Manufactures are no nearer related tc
commerce than agriculture and trade. Man.
ufactures and commerce are dissimiar, and
| can not be made Synonymous by construction.
Each is distinct, determined, and defined
subject, and they cannot be identified without
violence to recognized definitions, as well as
to constitutional bearings. Commerce is the
interchange of commodities between different
localities. Manufactures are local, founded
for the production of commodities and not for
for their interchange. Commerce supplies
the American citizen, in return for the pro
ducts of his labor, with the varied products o.
distant climes. Manufactures convert his raw
materials into fabrics for consumption. Soph
istry itselfcan not identify things thus distinct
nor render synonymous the terms and phrases
by which they are represented. Yet the ar.
gument which derives the power to promote
\ manufactures from the power to regulate com
merce does, indeed, identify the subjects and
renders the terms substantially the same.
1t would seem that the power to regulate
commerce was granted to Congress with q
/ view to the perfection of our commercial rela
tons with foreign nations, as well as to secure