by the government for the service of the state. Direct taxes are laid directly on land or real property, or upon persons, in which case they are spoken of as personal, poll, or capitation taxes. Indirect taxes are laid on articles of consumption, whether those articles consist of imports or manufactures. In this description of tax are included duties, imposts, and excises. By duties are generally meant taxes upon goods, imported or exported, though, as we shall see hereafter, the Constitution inhibits a tax or duty on articles exported from any state. Imposts, in a restricted sense, mean taxes on goods imported from abroad. Excise is an inland tax levied upon various commodities of home use or consumption, usually while in the hands of the producer or manufacturer.

Rule by which Taxes are levied.

135. All duties, imposts, and excises, must be uniform throughout the United States; but a different rule is prescribed for capitation or other direct taxes. These must be levied, not according to the rule of uniformity, but according to the rule of apportionment, that is, they must be apportioned among the several states, according to their respective numbers.

136. A case decided by the Supreme Court soon after the organization of the government, furnishes a

very good illustration of the difference between the rule which requires that direct taxes shall be apportioned among the states according to their respective numbers, and the rule which requires that duties, imposts, and excises, shall be uniform throughout the United States. It arose as follows:-By an Act of Congress, passed in 1794, a duty of ten dollars each per annum was laid on carriages, and the levy made uniform throughout the United States, that is, each owner of a carriage was to pay ten dollars per annum, no matter whether the number of such owners in a particular state was few or many. The constitutionality of the act was contested upon the ground that it was a direct tax, and hence should be apportioned among the states according to their numbers.

137. In this case, the proportion of tax awarded to a particular state, determined by its numbers, might be two hundred dollars, and yet there might not be more than two carriages in that state. Hence, although Congress only intended to lay a tax of ten dollars on each carriage, the owners of the two carriages would be compelled to pay one hundred dollars each. The Supreme Court, however, decided that the carriage tax was not a direct tax in the sense of the Constitution, and hence should be levied as Congress had directed according to the rule of uniformity. In addition to the fact that direct taxes were

supposed to have reference only to land and persons, this consideration was decisive with the court, namely, that no tax could be a direct tax in the sense of the Constitution which was incapable of apportionment. according to the constitutional rule. And, if in any one of the states there should be no carriages, then there could be no apportionment at all.

Taxes may be extended to the Territories, &c.

138. The power to levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, is coextensive with the territory of the United States. Hence Congress, in laying a direct tax, may extend it to the District of Columbia and the territories. If this be done, the same rule which is applied to the states must be applied to them, namely, the rule of apportionment. It is equally necessary too that uniformity in the imposition of imposts, duties, and excises, should be observed in the one as in the other.

Power to borrow Money.

139. Congress have not only the power to raise money by means of taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, but the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States-a power absolutely necessary in order that provision may be made for those exigencies which arise in time of war, and those extra

ordinary and unexpected demands on the treasury which occasionally occur in time of peace. And the states have no power to tax the loans thus made.

Commerce.

140. Among the more prominent defects of the Articles of Confederation was the want of a general authority over commerce. This induced injurious regulations on the part of foreign nations, from their knowledge that Congress had no power to adopt countervailing measures, and also led to most irritating and complicating regulations on the part of the several states. Subjected to this double pressure, the commerce of the country was at a stand, and the union and harmony of the states were fast giving way to mutual discord and hatred. The evil was great and pressing, and was one of the chief causes that conduced to the call of the Federal Convention and the establishment of the Constitution. Hence, it was provided that Congress should have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.

141. To regulate commerce is to prescribe the rule by which commerce is to be governed. Commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, means intercourse with those nations, and among those states, for the purposes of trade, be the object

of the trade what it may; and this intercourse includes all the means by which it can be carried on, whether by the free navigation of the waters of the several states, or by a passage over land through the states, when such passage becomes necessary to the commercial intercourse between the states.

142. Commerce among the several states means commerce which concerns more states than one. It does not comprehend any commerce which is purely internal, between man and man in a single state, or between different parts of the same state, and not extending to or affecting other states. At the same time commerce among the states does not stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the interior. The word among means intermingled with.

143. The power to regulate commerce may be variously applied, as, for example, by laws for the regulation of the coasting trade and fisheries, and wrecks of the sea, and for the punishment of crimes upon stranded vessels; for the government of seamen on board of American ships, and the imposition of embargoes; for the construction of light-houses and buoys, the removal of obstructions to navigation in rivers, bays, lakes, and harbors; the imposition of duties upon articles of importation; the designation of particular ports of entry and delivery, and for