161. In the first year of Washington's administration there were but twenty-five post-offices in all the United States. In the following year the income of the Post-office Department did not reach thirty-eight thousand dollars. Its income and expenditure are now reckoned by millions, and there is scarcely any portion of our immense territory, however remote, that is not visited by the mail. Intercourse between all parts of the country is thus facilitated, knowledge diffused, and the operations of government carried on with promptitude and regularity.

162. In the exercise of the power to establish post-offices and post-roads, Congress have felt themselves authorized to create the whole system appropriate to a post-office establishment. They have passed laws for the punishment of those who steal letters from the post-office, or rob the mail; they have purchased or erected buildings for post-offices, and, in some instances, laid out and made roads for the carrying of the mail, though generally they have merely designated or selected as post-roads such roads as already existed. By an Act of Congress, passed in 1853, all railroads in the United States have been declared post-roads.

163. The general control and supervision of the Post-office establishment are confided to the Postmaster-General, who is a member of the President's

Cabinet. He is authorized to establish post-offices, appoint all postmasters whose annual commissions are less than a thousand dollars, make contracts for the carriage of the mails, and direct generally the operations and affairs of the department over which he presides.

Science and Useful Arts.

164. Congress have power to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

165. In the United States an author has no exclusive property in a published work, except under some act of Congress. Such property is not recognised by the common law. In pursuance of the power confided to them by the Constitution, Congress have passed laws giving to authors, who are citizens of the United States or resident therein, the exclusive right to publish their works for a term of twenty-eight years, with the privilege of enjoying the same right for an additional period of fourteen years.

Copyrights.

166. This exclusive right of authors is called a copyright, and is granted not only to the authors of books, but to the authors of maps, charts, and mu

sical compositions, and to the inventors and designers of prints, cuts, and engravings. If an author, inventor, designer, or engraver should not be living at the expiration of the first period of twenty-eight years, the privilege of renewal for the further period of fourteen years survives to his widow and children.

Patents.

167. The inventors or discoverers of any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, not known or used by others before their discovery or invention thereof, and which has not been abandoned to the public or been in public use, or on sale, for more than two years prior to the application for a patent, are entitled to the exclusive right of manufacturing and selling such invention for the period of fourteen years. This privilege is termed a patentright, and may, when the inventor, without neglect or fault on his part, has not been adequately remunerated, be extended for an additional period of seven years.

167. As patents are granted "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts," the courts give them a liberal construction. Moreover, the power of Congress over them is plenary; so that, if they do not

take away the rights of property in existing patents, they may modify them; they may make special grants and special extensions; and they may also give a retrospective effect to their grants.

Piracies and Felonies.

168. To Congress is intrusted the power to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations.

169. Piracy is a crime well known to the law of nations, and is robbery or forcible depredations upon the sea, animo furandi, in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. The object of the Constitution is not, therefore, to authorize Congress to define a crime already well and universally defined, but to empower them to enumerate such crimes as shall be deemed piracies. Congress have accordingly declared the slave trade piracy, as well as every offence committed at sea, which would be punishable with death if committed on land.

170. Felony, in a general sense, is every description of crime which the common law punishes either with death or forfeiture of lands and goods. It is a term, as has been justly remarked, of loose signification in the common law, and more vague still in the law of the sea. Hence the propriety of giving Congress the power to define as well as to punish it. By

the "high seas " is meant the unenclosed waters of the ocean beyond low water mark.

171. By the law of nations is meant that system of principles and usages which regulates the intercourse of nations. Among the more obvious offences against that law may be mentioned the violation of passports, infringement of the rights of ambassadors, and the infraction of treaties. Under the Confederation Congress possessed no power to punish such offences, and were compelled to appeal to the states to provide adequate and exemplary punishment in all that class of cases. As the general government represents the country in its external relations, and is bound by the law of nations, it is wisely intrusted with the power to define offences against that law, and punish its citizens for committing them.

War.

172. Congress possess the power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.

173. In the ancient republics of Greece the right of declaring war resided with the assemblies of the people, who exercised a large portion of the sovereign power. In the aristocratic republic of Carthage it was confided to the senate; in Rome to the comitia, or assembly of the people. In the monarchies of