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EXERCISES.

1. By what authority are national court: established ? 2. What kinds of cases are tried in the courts of the United States?

§ 3. Which are the lowest of these courts? Describe these courts and their jurisdiction.

§ 4. Which are the next higher courts? By whom are they held? What cases are tried in the circuit courts?

§ 5. How is the supreme court constituted? What is its business? How often do these several courts sit in a year? § 6. What other important object is attained by a supreme court of the United States? From what state courts only may cases be brought to this court?

§ 7. How, and for what time, are judges of the national courts appointed?

CHAPTER XLIX.

Of the Powers of Congress.

§ 1. HAVING seen how the several departments of the general government are constituted, we proceed to the consideration of its powers. It is important that the extent of its power on all subjects be understood by every citizen, that he may know whether at any time it exercises power which does not belong to it. Although the constitution grants to it many powers which it did not formerly possess, yet it can exercise only such as are granted; whereas, the state governments possess and may exercise all powers which they have not surrendered to the general government.

§ 2. Most of the important powers of the government of the United States are vested in congress, and are expressed in the 8th section of the 1st article of the constitution. It is not compatible with the design and limits of this work to comment on all the powers enumerated in this section. Those only will be considered which are deemed of the great

est importance, and more especially those the want of which led to the formation and adoption of the constitution.

§ 3. Perhaps the want of none of these powers was so sensibly felt under the confederation, as the first three here mentioned; and it is probably for this reason that they were placed at the beginning of the list. The first of these is the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises ;" the objects of which power are declared to be, "to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States."

§ 4. Congress had been obliged to borrow large sums of money to defray the expenses of the war. Several millions were borrowed from F:ance and Holland. But congress had no power, as has been observed, to raise money by taxation. The government could not pay its debts, nor support itself. But by the power here given, it may raise money to any amount necessary for the objects stated in the constitution. And it may raise the money either by direct taxation, that is, by laying the tax directly on the property of the citizens, or by indirect taxation, which is by duties, imposts, and excises.

§ 5. Duties or customs, and imposts, have nearly the same meaning. The last, however, are properly taxes on goods imported only; the first apply to taxes on goods exported as well as on those imported. But as our government does not impose duties on exports, these three words practically signify the same thing. But excise has no reference at all to the exportation or importation of goods; it is a tax laid upon an article manufactured, sold, or consumed, within the country. Such, for example, is the duty paid by keepers of taverns and groceries for the privilege of selling liquors.

§ 6. Notwithstanding congress has power to raise money

by taxation in several ways, it has seldom been found necessary to exercise it in any other way than by laying duties on foreign goods, and on the vessels in which they were imported. How effectual this mode of taxation has been, will appear from the following facts:

§ 7. At the close of the revolutionary war, the national debt amounted to $42,000,000, on which congress could not so much as pay the interest. Two years after the constitution went into effect, the debt had risen to $75,000 000; in

1804, to $86,000,000. From that time it gradually diminished until the commencement of the late war, in 1812, when it was reduced to $45,000,000. By that war, the debt was again increased, being in 1816, $127,000,000. § 8. Now the raising of so large a sum by a direct tax, would have been very oppressive. Wherefore congress exercised its power of taxation almost exclusively in laying duties on imports; and from the revenue thus raised, not only have the yearly expenses of the government been defrayed, but this vast national debt has long since been paid, leaving in the treasury a large surplus of about thirty millions of dollars, which, by an act of congress in 1836, was apportioned among the several states, to be kept and used by the states until called for by congress. Probably the return of the money will never be demanded.

§ 9. Equally necessary is the power next mentioned, "to borrow money on the credit of the United States." Large sums of money are sometimes wanted to pay a debt before they can be raised from the revenues or regular income of the nation; and sometimes immediately, as in case of war. In such case, congress must either tax the people, or borrow the money. But who would lend the government, if it had not the means of paying? Hence we see the utility of both these powers. Capitalists are now willing to lend their money to the government, because, if other means of paying its debts should be insufficient, it has power to raise the money by direct taxation.

EXERCISES.

§ 1. To what extent may power be cxercised by the general government and state governments respectively?

§ 2. In what branch of the general government are most of its powers vested?

§ 3. What is the first in the list of granted powers?

4. What condition of the country rendered this power necessary ? To what extent, and in what manner, may this power be exercised?

§ 5. Define duties, customs, imposts and excises.

§ 6. In what way has the national revenue been chiefly raised?

§ 7. State the amount of the national debt at different periods. When was it largest?

§ 8. By what means has this debt been paid?

9. Why is the power to borrow money necessary?

CHAPTER L.

Powers of Congress, Continued.

§ 1. THE power "to regulate commerce with foreign na

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tions," which is next in the list, seems to be in a measure connected with the first, " to lay duties." It will be remembered that, before the war of the revolution, the colonies were dependent on Great Britain for manufactured goods. By the war, trade with that country was interrupted. But when peace was restored, the British again sent their goods into this country; but upon American produce and American vessels coming into British ports, they levied heavy duties. Thus was the trade of the two countries placed on an unequal footing. We wanted English goods, but England would not take the produce of our labor in exchange, without subjecting it to heavy duties.

§ 2. Some explanation may be necessary to enable young persons to understand the objects and unequal operation of this measure of British policy. One object was to secure a market at home for the products of agricultural labor. To show how this is done by taxing foreign products, let us suppose the cost of raising a bushel of wheat in England to be one dollar, and the cost of producing it here and transporting it to that market to be the same. If now a duty of 40 cents a bushel be laid upon foreign wheat, the English consumer, instead of buying it with this duty added, will buy of the English producer. But the American farmer has wheat for which he must find a market abroad; and in order to sell it in the English market, he must pay 40 cents on every bushel to the British government; or rather, he

must sell it for so much less to the English purchaser, who pays the duty to the government.

§3. The people of this country being nearly all employed at that time in agriculture, and consequently dependent upon foreign markets for the sale of the surplus products of their labor, they were compelled to submit to these duties. As the result of this system, the consumers in Great Britain obtained their supplies partly at home and partly from abroad; and the British government thus accomplished the two-fold object of encouraging and rewarding agricultural labor at home, and of drawing a large revenue into its treasury by taxing the same kind of labor in this country.

§ 4. Not possessing the means at that time of manufacturing to any considerable extent, the country was flooded with goods from Great Britain, for which our citizens must either pay in money, or in produce heavily burdened with duties. Hence some measures for regulating foreign trade became necessary. But congress had not the power to regulate commerce; the power belonged to the states. The states, acting separately, could not effect the object desired; and they were unable to agree upon any general system of

measures.

§ 5. A convention to consist of commissioners from the several states was at length proposed, for the purpose of providing some remedy for the evils complained of. Commissioners from some of the states assembled; but for the want of the requisite power, nothing was accomplished. It was now apparent that a change in the government must be made before any effectual remedy for the evil could be provided. And as certain other changes in the government had been found necessary, congress, having been thereto requested, called a convention to revise and amend the articles of confederation. The labors of that convention resulted in the formation of the present constitution, in which we find the power to regulate commerce placed near the head of the list of the powers granted to the general government.

§ 6. It has just been remarked, that the two powers "to lay duties" and "to regulate commerce" seem to have a connection. Indeed, the former has been used to carry into effect the latter. One of the means by which it was intend

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