THE LAW OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE. THE FEDERAL CONTROL OF STATE REGULATION OF COMMERCE CHAPTER I. § 1. The commerce clause in the constitution...... 2. Power of congress in foreign commerce and with the Indian 20 21 22 22 12. The commerce clause and the admiralty jurisdiction. 13. Erie Canal subject to admiralty jurisdiction... 19. But a state can tax the property employed in interstate commerce 28 20. State power of taxation of corporations engaged in interstate 29 "The congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." Constitution of the United States, art. I, sec. 8, par. 3. "The congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into effect the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department, or any officer thereof." Art. 1, sec. 8, par. 18. "No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." Art. I, sec. 9, par. 5. "The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several states." Art. IV, sec. 2. "This constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." Art. VI, par. 2. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Amendment X (declared ratified January 8, 1798). "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Article XIV, Section 1 (declared ratified July 28, 1868). § 1. The commerce clause in the constitution.-The commerce clause in the federal constitution illustrates more pointedly than any other the circumstances which forced the adoption of the constitution and the formation of the government of the Union, and its judicial history is the clearest example of the adaptation of a written constitution by construction to conditions and emergencies never contemplated by its framers. It was the necessity for national control over foreign commerce which was the immediate occasion for calling the convention of 1787, as the defect of the articles of confederation in failing to provide for the control of this commerce was universally recognized. Under the articles of confederation adopted during the revolutionary war congress had power to regulate trade with the Indians, but the control of foreign and interstate commerce remained with the states. The compact between Virginia and Maryland relative to the navigation of the Potomac river and the Chesapeake Bay, and the report of the commissioners thereon led the Virginia legislature to call a conference at Annapolis in 1786 to take into consideration the "trade of the United States, to examine the relative situation in the trade of the states, to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations may be necessary to the common interests and their permanent harmony." From the Annapolis conference came the call for the Philadelphia convention of 1787, which framed the constitution. Commerce among the states however was in 1787 very simple, and other than that carried on in teams and wagons was carried on by navigation, There was comparatively little discussion in the debates of the convention or in the Federalist concerning the federal control over interstate commerce, and no consideration seems to have been given to the question of the effect of this grant of the federal power upon the police or taxing power of the states. It was regarded as essentially supplemental to the control over foreign commerce, and was granted so as to make the control over foreign commerce effective. It was said by Mr. Madison,' that without this supplemental provision the great and essential power of regulating foreign commerce would have been incomplete and ineffectual, 1 Federalist No. 42. It was sug- or law regulating commerce should gested in the convention though not be passed without the consent of adopted, and also in some of the two-thirds of the members present state conventions as a condition of in both houses. ratification, that no navigation law |