5th. It must not be something forbidden by the laws of the land as committing burglary, robbery, assault and battery, or

arson.

;

§ 9. When a legal contract is made, no State has the right to pass any laws to defeat it. The legislature has no right to interfere with the intention of the parties, so as in any way to defeat it, or to impose new conditions. But the legislature may change the method of enforcing a contract. For instance, suppose, by a law of New Jersey, a man who owes a debt, and can not pay it, may be imprisoned: New Jersey may pass a law abolishing imprisonment for debt; and that law may open the door of every jail in the State, and set every debtor free. This is not a law impairing the obligation of contracts; for imprisonment is not payment. The debtor so released from prison is still under legal obligation to pay.

ART. III.- WAR.

1. No State shall grant letters of marque and reprisal, 51; nor,

2. Without the consent of Congress, keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace; nor,

3. Engage in war, unless,

1st. Actually invaded; or,

2d. In such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 52.

§ 1. This article, with its divisions and subdivisions, embraces all the restrictions imposed on the States by the Constitution in reference to making war. The power of making war, and of making treaties of peace, belongs exclusively to the General Govern

ment.

§ 2. The establishment of an army or navy by a State in times of peace might be a cause of jealousy between neighboring States, and provoke the hostilities of foreign neighboring nations. Still, a State may be so situated that it may become indispensable to possess military forces to resist an expected invasion or insurrection. The Ganger may be too imminent for delay; and, under such circum

stances, a State would have a right to raise troops for its own safety, even without the consent of Congress.1

For an explanation of letters of marque and reprisal, see Art. VII., Chap. IV., Part II.

ART. IV.- PENALTIES.

1. No State shall pass any bill of attainder; nor,

2. Any ex post facto law. 51.

The terms bill of attainder and ex post facto law were explained in Chap. VI., Art. VII., Part II. The explanation need not be repeated here.

Bills of attainder and ex post facto laws are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and of every principle of sound legislation. Congress is forbidden to pass them, as we have seen; and for the same, if not for stronger reasons, the prohibition is extended to the States.

ART. V.-NOBILITY.

No State shall grant any title of nobility. 51.

In Chap. VI., Art. VI., we have seen that the United States are forbidden to grant any title of nobility. States are under the same prohibition, and for similar reasons. It would be absurd to provide against the exercise of this power by the General Government, and yet leave the States at liberty to exercise it.2

ART. VI.-DUTIES.

1. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, 1st. Lay any duty of tonnage; nor,

2d. Any imposts, or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for exe

cuting its inspection-laws.

2. The net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States. 52.

§ 1. Tonnage-duty is a tax or duty laid on ships or vessels in proportion to their cubical contents expressed in tons. A ton ex2 Ibid., § 1,400

1 Story on Const., § 1,404.

pressed by measure is forty-two cubic feet. States are forbidden by the Constitution to lay any duties of this kind without the permission of Congress. In reference to the subject of duties generally, it was the intention of the authors of the Constitution to place it entirely under the supervision and control of Congress. In the Convention that formed the Constitution, there was strong opposition to this prohibition on the States; and it finally passed that body by the close vote of six States against four. One State, being divided, gave no vote. There was a constant, earnest struggle against the surrender of State powers to the General Government.

§ 2. Nor are States allowed to lay duties of any kind, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing their inspectionlaws ; and even these, as we have seen in another place, are under the supervision and control of Congress. This is because to the hands of Congress is committed the regulation of commerce, not only with foreign nations, but among the States. The restraint on the power of the States over imports and exports is enforced by all the arguments which prove the necessity of submitting the regulation of trade to the Federal councils.1 Inspection-laws are not, strictly speaking, regulations of commerce. Their object is to improve the quality of articles produced by the labor of the country, and to fit them for exportation or for domestic use. These laws act upon the subject before it becomes an article of commerce.2

The whole power to lay duties and imposts on imports and exports, and to lay a tonnage-duty, is, doubtless, properly considered a part of the taxing power; but it may also be applied as a regulation of commerce.3

ART. VII.-SLAVERY.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist,

1. Within the limits of the United States; nor,
2. In any place subject to their jurisdiction. 97.

The Federalist, No. 44.

2 Kent's Com., Lect. 19.

8 Federalist, No. 7, 22.

§ 1. Slaves were merely things in contemplation of the laws by which they were held in bondage in the States. Yet there were these exceptions to this definition: they were capable of committing crimes, and were punishable therefor; and they were counted at the rate of five for three in enumerating the representative population of the States. They were subject to sale like other personal property. They could not take property by descent or purchase, and whatever they had belonged to their owners. They could make no lawful contracts, had no civil rights, and might be sold on execution for the payment of the master's debts.

§ 2. As long as slavery existed in this country, it was a State institution, not national. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, there were thirteen States, in twelve of which slavery existed. The authors of the Constitution recognized this condition of things, and did not propose to interfere with it in any manner whatever, except to bring the foreign slave-trade under the control of Congress from and after the year 1808. Congress could not interfere with it in the States; and, when abolished, it had to be done by an amendment to the Constitution.

§ 3. In 1620, a Dutch vessel brought a cargo of slaves from Africa to Virginia; and this was the beginning of slavery among the English Colonies on this continent. It existed along the banks of the Hudson as early as 1626. Slavery is mentioned in the Massachusetts laws between 1630 and 1641. Domestic slavery having thus commenced, it continued to increase throughout the United States while they were yet Colonies of Great Britain. It continued to exist among all the Southern States until it was abolished by the Constitutional Amendment of 1865. It had already become extinct in the Eastern and Northern States.

§ 4. In Pennsylvania, by an act of March 1, 1780, and in New Jersey, by acts of Feb. 14, 1784, and Feb. 24, 1820, passed for the gradual extinction of slavery, it was removed from them; and all children born of slave-parents after the 4th of July, 1804, were declared free. In Massachusetts, it was judicially declared, soon after the Revolutionary War, that slavery was virtually abolished

by their constitution, and that the children of female slaves, though born prior to their constitution, and as early as 1773, were born free.

§ 5. In Connecticut, statutes were passed in 1784 and in 1797, which gradually extinguished slavery in that State. In 1830, there were but twenty-five slaves in Connecticut. In Rhode Island, no person could be born a slave after March 1, 1774. In New Hampshire and Vermont, slavery was abolished by their respective constitutions. It was incorporated into the ordinance of Congress, July 13, 1787, for the government of the territory of the United States north-west of the River Ohio, that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes.1

66

§ 6. March 6, 1820, an act of Congress was passed, known as the Missouri Compromise, being one of the conditions on which Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slaveholding State. By this act, all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of Missouri, was to be free territory." In May, 1854, this compromise was substantially repealed.

§ 7. Down to 1850, the city of Washington was an extensive slave-market. Slaveholders from all parts of the slaveholding States came there for the purpose of buying or selling slaves. Sept. 20, 1850, an act of Congress was passed prohibiting the traffic in slaves within the limits of the District of Columbia. April 16, 1862, slavery was wholly abolished within the District of Columbia; and, by the same act, it was abolished throughout the territories belonging at that time to the United States, and which might thereafter be acquired by them. The next great move was the amendment to the Constitution, which is the subject of this article, prohibiting the States and Territories within the United States from giving sanction to this institution. The final downfali of American slavery dates from the year of our Lord 1865.

1 Kent's Com., Lect. 32, and notes.