Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
right of any State within its own limits. What description of Indians
are to be deemed members of a State, is not yet settled, and has been a
question of frequent perplexity and contention in the federal councils.
And how the trade with Indians, though not members of a State, yet
residing within its legislative jurisdiction, can be regulated by an
external authority, without so far intruding on the internal rights of
legislation, is absolutely incomprehensible. This is not the only case
in which the articles of Confederation have inconsiderately endeavored
to accomplish impossibilities; to reconcile a partial sovereignty in
the Union, with complete sovereignty in the States; to subvert a
mathematical axiom, by taking away a part, and letting the whole
remain. All that need be remarked on the power to coin money, regulate
the value thereof, and of foreign coin, is, that by providing for this
last case, the Constitution has supplied a material omission in the
articles of Confederation. The authority of the existing Congress is
restrained to the regulation of coin STRUCK by their own authority, or
that of the respective States. It must be seen at once that the
proposed uniformity in the VALUE of the current coin might be destroyed
by subjecting that of foreign coin to the different regulations of the
different States. The punishment of counterfeiting the public
securities, as well as the current coin, is submitted of course to that
authority which is to secure the value of both. The regulation of
weights and measures is transferred from the articles of Confederation,
and is founded on like considerations with the preceding power of
regulating coin.
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