=The Powers of Congress.=—The powers of Congress, as the lawmaking branch of the national government, are set forth in eighteen clauses of the federal constitution. Hence it is customary to speak of the “eighteen powers of Congress”, although there are in fact more than eighteen separate powers, as anyone will find if he takes the trouble to count them. These powers may be conveniently grouped together under eight heads: (1) _financial_, the power to levy taxes and to borrow money; (2) _commercial_, the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states; (3) _military_, the power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to maintain a navy, and to provide for organizing, arming, and calling forth the state militia; (4) _monetary_, the power to coin money, to regulate the value thereof, and to protect the currency against counterfeiting; (5) _postal_, the power to establish post-offices and post roads; (6) _judicial_, the power to constitute tribunals subordinate to the Supreme Court; (7) _miscellaneous_, including powers in relation to bankruptcy, naturalization, patents, copyrights, and the government of the national capital; (8) _supplementary_, the power to make all laws which may be found “necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers”. This is a rather tedious classification of congressional powers, but the section which enumerates these powers is, by all odds, the most important part of the whole constitution and no one can claim to know much about the government of the United States unless he understands, at least in a general way, what these eighteen clauses express and imply. [Sidenote: Express and implied powers.] It will be noted that all the powers except the last are _express_ powers, that is, they are conveyed to Congress in so many words. The last is a grant of _implied_ authority, in other words it is a provision for supplementing the express powers. Where Congress has the express right to tax, to borrow, to regulate interstate commerce, to raise and support armies, or to coin money, it has the implied right to make whatever laws may be “necessary and proper” to carry its express powers into full operation. Having the express power to borrow money, Congress may therefore establish a system of banks if this is needed to render more easy the operations of borrowing. Having the express power to support armies, it may place almost any sort of restriction upon industry in war time. By the implied powers clause of the constitution the authority of Congress is given great elasticity.