as the State-rights doctrine, which has upheld slavery and culminated in rebellion, both equally opposed to the whole letter and spirit of the Constitution.

CHAPTER XX.

LEGISLATIVE POWERS.- SPECIAL.

The Financial Powers.

$303. THE 8th section begins, "The Congress shall have power," &c. This vests certain powers, afterwards named, in Congress, which had already been designated as the depositary of "all the legislative powers" of the government. It does not purport to be a catalogue, a specification, or even an epitome, of those powers, and least of all an enumeration of them. It simply grants certain powers, therein named, to Congress; as other sections preceding and following it have granted other powers to them, more in number, and some of them of much greater importance, than some of these. Here is not only no disparagement of others not herein named, vested in the government generally, or in Congress particularly; but there is at the end an express mention made of "all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government . . . or any department . . . thereof," showing with certainty that there are "other powers" vested in the [289]

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government and in Congress: for all the powers of the government are to be executed through the departments, and the appropriate portion of them inures directly to Congress. So it is absolutely impossible that this 8th section should be either an enumeration or a specification of the powers of either, because it expressly recognizes others of both kinds.

§ 304. The first item is in three parts: 1st, "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; " 2d, "To pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare, of the United States;" 3d, "But all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." The second item is, " To borrow money on the credit of the United States." These two items constitute the principal sources of the revenue, or the pecuniary means of sustaining the government and accomplishing the objects for which it was ordained and established. They are substantially unlimited. The power of borrowing is wholly so. They may borrow at any time, in any manner, anywhere, of anybody, to any amount, and on any terms, as to security, payment, or interest. They may levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and ex

1 Revenue lies at the foundation, and constitutes a most important part, of all the powers of the government. Without it they could not provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty, or even continue their own existence. The money power might well have been considered under this head; but we have chosen to place it rather under the next, or commercial power.

cises, to any amount, at any time, on persons, property, or estate, for any purpose which the government is authorized to promote, and in any manner; with only the three qualifications of uniformity, apportionment, and exemption, which will be considered under the next section.

§ 305. Attempts have been made to limit the power to the single purpose of raising revenue; but they have uniformly failed. The first statute on the subject expressly recognized in its preamble the encouragement of manufactures as one of the objects in view; and subsequent Acts have been adjusted to the interests of commercial, agricultural, and manufacturing industry, as well as to revenue. When money is collected and received into the treasury, it can only be drawn out" in consequence of appropriations made by law;" and Congress can pass no law on this or any other subject, but such as is calculated to accomplish some of the avowed purposes for which the Constitution was made. So that all appropriations must be made "for carrying into execution the powers vested in the government." The design or object of a tax may be to foster and protect the subject on which it is levied, or to limit and destroy it or any of its adjuncts. "The power to tax involves the power to destroy."

1

§ 306. This power of taxation, including all the forms of levying, the selection of subjects,

1 Section 9.

2 Per Marshall, C. J., 4 Wheat. R., 431.

the amount of assessment, and the mode of collection, with its universality and supremacy, must be a very formidable instrument in the hands of the government, for regulating and controlling all the subordinate agencies in the State. Mr. George Mason warned the Virginians, before the Constitution was adopted, that "this power, being unconfined and without any kind of control, must carry every thing before it," and was "calculated to annihilate totally the State governments." The United States, however, have never made use of their unlimited and uncontrollable power in this respect, to control or embarrass the operations of the State governments, even when those operations were unconstitutional, and intended directly to counteract their own proceedings. But some of the States have instructed them by examples, which might be followed as precedents, of the manner in which it might be rendered very efficient. Witness the attempts to drive the United-States Bank and the United-States Loan beyond their respective jurisdictions.1

§ 307. The words of the second and third lines of the section, "to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare, of the United States," demand more special attention. The principle avocation of the State-rights

1 See McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. R.; Osborn, &c., v. The Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat; Weston, &c., v. City Council of Charleston, 2 Peter's Rep.