The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-05-01

Government and its powerlessness TO aid.
protect and foster commerce.
1T has been truly said that the OBJ
jections made by the State of New Jer-
sey foreshadowed the great idea which
the constitution afterward embodied
This objection was that the articles of
confederation contained no provision by
which the foreign trade of the country
could be placed under the regulation of
Congress. This point had first been
raised in very able memorial of the
New Jersey Legislature. laid before the
Continental Congress on the 25th of
June, 177S. (which declared that the sole
and exclusive power Of regulating the
trade of the United States with foreign
nations ought to be clearly vested in the
Congress, and that the revenue arising
from duties and customs ought to be ap-
propriated to the building and support of
a navy for the protection of trade and
general purposes for the common bene-
fit of the States
'In the words of Curtis, in his Com
mentaries on the Constitution, The peo-
pie Of New Jersey alone, of all the
States, had expressly declared that the
regulation f commerce ought to be
vested in the general government
Every authority on the constitution con-
cedes that the convention which framed
that instrument was Immediately
brought about by the recognized necessi-
ty of uniformity in the commercial re-
lations of the several States. 1t is to
the undying credit of our State tina she
was he first as State, to recognize
the necessity of this principle and to em-
body the same in the famous resolution
Of her Legislature of June 20. 177S.
"Her delegation to the constitutional
convention, entrusted with the great duty
of presenting and defending her position,
was brilliantly representative of that inn
mortal assemblage of political genius and
ability. At its head was William Living
ston, eleven times Governor of New Jer-
sey. Associated with him were David
Brearly. for twelve years cliief justice of
the State; William Churchill Houston
member of the Continental Congress; !;
William Patterson, a signer of the Dec
laration of Independence, and Jonathan
Dayton. twice Speaker of the House of
Representatives and United States Sen
ator No other State could boast of an
ADLER group of statesmen. and their abil-
ity is reflected in the so-called ssNew
Jersey Plan" brought forward by Pat
ferson. the most ESSENTIAL feature of
which was New Jerseys oft-repeated
contention that Congress should regulate
domestic and foreign trade and levy du-
ties and customs.
sNeither time nor the occasion will
permit me to dwell upon this historic
theme. which even in her infancy as a
State this marked out the policy of New
Jersey and foreshadowed her great car
eer. From the beginning her statesmen
clearly saw that upon agriculture she
could only depend to a limited extent
she must look to commerce, to manufac-
turing. to fnnce. for her achievements
and her prosperity. Fortunately. she has
had no mistaken notion about this. and
has followed in the pathway thus early
selected with undertaking footsteps.
ssThere are some who feel alarm be-
cause of new phases in business matters.
An increasing population and its needs,
closer and larger commercial intimacy
with other nations, discovery aud inyen-
ton. have brought new conditions into
our national life The stage coach of our
fathers has disappeared. though even vet
we can seem to see its dust and hear the
rumble of it's wheels. Now we travel in
luxury such as no drawing room in Amer
4
lea could boast one hundred years ago.
The telephone makes near neighbors of
those who dwell thousand miles apart.
To friends far out at sea we send mes
sage by an invisible communication
through the tractless air. At Panama we
are cutting the Isthmus in twain. the
greatest work ever entered upon by man,
that the waters of the Atlantic and Pa
cific may inermarry and 5000 miles may
be annihilated for the leviathans of the
deep. It has been the dream of mariners
for four centuries. All is changed. The
heart of the nation thrills with new
life. What signifies this phenomenon
Only this-the country is conscious of