Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
members, is in the number of those which have been clearly pointed out
by experience. To the proofs and remarks which former papers have
brought into view on this subject, it may be added that without this
supplemental provision, the great and essential power of regulating
foreign commerce would have been incomplete and ineffectual. A very
material object of this power was the relief of the States which import
and export through other States, from the improper contributions levied
on them by the latter. Were these at liberty to regulate the trade
between State and State, it must be foreseen that ways would be found
out to load the articles of import and export, during the passage
through their jurisdiction, with duties which would fall on the makers
of the latter and the consumers of the former. We may be assured by
past experience, that such a practice would be introduced by future
contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human affairs,
that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not improbably
terminate in serious interruptions of the public tranquillity. To those
who do not view the question through the medium of passion or of
interest, the desire of the commercial States to collect, in any form,
an indirect revenue from their uncommercial neighbors, must appear not
less impolitic than it is unfair; since it would stimulate the injured
party, by resentment as well as interest, to resort to less convenient
channels for their foreign trade. But the mild voice of reason,
pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too
often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the
clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain. The
necessity of a superintending authority over the reciprocal trade of
confederated States, has been illustrated by other examples as well as
our own. In Switzerland, where the Union is so very slight, each canton
is obliged to allow to merchandises a passage through its jurisdiction
into other cantons, without an augmentation of the tolls. In Germany it
is a law of the empire, that the princes and states shall not lay tolls
or customs on bridges, rivers, or passages, without the consent of the
emperor and the diet; though it appears from a quotation in an
antecedent paper, that the practice in this, as in many other instances
in that confederacy, has not followed the law, and has produced there
the mischiefs which have been foreseen here. Among the restraints
imposed by the Union of the Netherlands on its members, one is, that
they shall not establish imposts disadvantageous to their neighbors,
without the general permission. The regulation of commerce with the
Indian tribes is very properly unfettered from two limitations in the
articles of Confederation, which render the provision obscure and
contradictory. The power is there restrained to Indians, not members of
any of the States, and is not to violate or infringe the legislative
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account