Page:A legal review of the case of Dred Scott, as decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.djvu/31

 exercised by congress? It has usually been found in that clause of the Constitution which we have just cited, granting power to congress "to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United States." Taking these words in their literal sense only, there would seem to be no doubt of their meaning. Sir William Blackstone, whose commentaries were at least as familiar to the framers of the Constitution, as they have been to all statesmen and lawyers since their time, says that "municipal or civil law is the rule by which particular districts, communities, or nations are governed." 1 Bl. Com. 44. And the word "regulation" is frequently used in the Constitution in a similar sense. Thus no fugitive slave is to be discharged from service by reason of "any law or regulation "in the State to which he escapes. Another familiar instance is the power given to congress to "regulate commerce," of which Chief Justice Marshall said: "It is the power to regulate; that is, to prescribe the rule by which commerce is to be governed. This power, like all others vested in congress, is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations, other than are prescribed in the Constitution." "If, as has always been understood, the sovereignty of congress, though limited to specified objects, is plenary as to those objects, the power over commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, is vested in congress as absolutely as it would be in a single government, having in its Constitution the same restrictions upon the exercise of the power as are found in the Constitution of the United States." Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheaton, 196, 197.

All the text writers of authority agree in this view of the clause cited. Thus Chancellor Kent says: "With respect to the vast Territories belonging to the United States, congress have assumed to exercise over them supreme powers of sovereignty. Exclusive and unlimited power of legislation is given to congress by the Constitution, and sanctioned by judicial decisions." 1 Kent Com. 383. And Judge Story holds similar language: "No one has ever doubted the authority of congress to erect territorial governments within the Territory of the United States, under the general language of the clause, 'to make all needful rules and regulations.' Indeed, with the Ordinance of 1787 in the very view of the framers, as well as of the people of the States, it is impossible to doubt that such a power was