15. The powers of Congress, delegated to it as a whole, or to its respective Houses, and largely regulative of congressional membership and procedure, may be described as necessary parliamentary powers, excepting the powers of the respective Houses in the selection of President and Vice-President. Parliamentary powers are functions essential to the efficiency of a legislative body, and they were worked out, largely, before and during colonial times. Such parliamentary functions were exercised by the British Parliament and by State Legislatures prior to the making of the Constitution. Indeed, the provisions respecting such powers, in the State constitutions from 1776 to 1787, were the immediate precedents for them in the Constitution of the United States.[38] But when we speak of the legislative powers vested in Congress, we do not mean, commonly, these strictly parliamentary powers; rather do we mean another group or class of powers included under such headings as “taxation,” “money,” “commerce,” “banking,” “the army,” “the navy,” “territory,” and others of notable rank. Such powers as those indicate (or seem to indicate), a larger delegation of authority to Congress than its authority to regulate its membership. Whatever may be thought of the relative rank of the powers of Congress, all emanate from the same source, “the people of the United States.” 16. In determining the nature and extent of these powers, we are aided by the Constitution itself which sets limitations. Thus, all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.[39] The privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.[40] No bill of attainder or _ex post facto_ law shall be passed.[41] No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State.[42] No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over these of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.[43] No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.[44] In addition to these limitations, there are limitations set forth in the first ten, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. These amendments, in the aggregate, deny to Congress authority to violate what we commonly designate as fundamental rights. In other words, the people of the United States have given Congress no power whatever to imperil these rights: they are excepted out of the government of the United States.[45]