Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v4.djvu/483

1817.] two nations having been repelled with indignity,—and as the French persisted in their system of predatory violence, infracting those treaties, and hostile to the rights of a free and independent nation,—for these causes, explicitly, Congress, in July, 179S, passed a law, enacting that those treaties should not, thenceforth, be regarded as legally obligatory on the government or citizens of the United States. And two days afterwards. Congress passed another law, authorizing the capture of all French armed vessels, to which the commerce of the United States long had been, and continued to be, a prey. And as in this, so in every other case, in which Congress shall judge there existed good and sufficient cause for declaring a treaty void, they will so pronounce; either because they intend to declare war, or because they are willing the United States should meet a war, to be declared on the other side, as less injurious to the country than an adherence to the treaty. But should Congress, without adequate cause, declare a treaty no longer obligatory, they must be prepared to meet the reproach of perfidy, besides exposing the United States to the evils of war, should the offended nation think fit to avenge the wrong by making war upon them.



, February, 1817.

Mr. PICKERING. He remembered that the supposition that Congress might, under that clause, exercise the power of making roads in any state, and where they pleased, was offered as a serious objection to the adoption of the Constitution, in the Convention of Pennsylvania, of which Mr. P. (then living in that state) was a member. And his recollection was probably the more perfect because he answered the objection, observing, that the power "to establish post-offices and post-roads" could intend no more than the power to direct where post-offices should be kept, and on what roads the mails should be carried and this answer appeared, then, to be entirely satisfactory.

Mr. CLAY. As to the constitutional point which had been made, he had not a doubt on his mind. It was a sufficient answer to say, that the power was not now to be exercised. It was proposed merely to designate the fund, and, from time to time, as the proceeds of it came in, to invest them in the funded debt of the United States. It would thus be accumulating, and Congress could, at some future day, examine into the constitutionality of the question; and if it has the power, it would exercise it; if it has not, the Constitution, there could be very little doubt, would be so amended as to confer it. It was quite obvious, however, that Congress might so direct the application of the fund, as not to interfere with the jurisdiction of the several states, and thus avoid the difficulty which had been started. It might distribute it among those objects of private enterprise which called for national patronage, in the form of subscriptions to the capital stock of incorporated companies, such as that of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, and other similar institutions. Perhaps that might be the best way to employ the fund ; but he repeated that this was not the time to go into that inquiry.

Mr. PICKERING. It has been said that the last clause but one, in the 8th section of the 1st article, expressly mentions "the erection of forts, arsenals, dock-yards, magazines, and other needful buildings;" but whoever will examine that clause, will perceive that it does not give Congress