Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/352

336 3 36 HAR VARD LA W RE VIE W. III. POWERS OF CONGRESS. We have largely heretofore been repeating the position of the importers' counsel. It is time to examine the contention of the government on this branch of its case. Briefly stated, the defence of the government rests upon four contentions : 1. Congress has power to levy taxes for the " general welfare." 2. The State authorities have no application. 3. Congress has exercised similar powers for many years with- out objection. 4. Congress has given the benefits of "protection" to certain industries, including sugar-raising, and fairness requires an equal bounty to the beneficiary upon the removal of the tax. 1. "General Welfare" Clause. Section 8 of Article I. of the Constitution provides that The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im- posts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common de- fence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. This has been interpreted to mean that the power of taxation is limited to the purposes of paying the debts and providing for the common defence and general welfare of the United States. 1 The attorney-general, after citing this provision, continues (p. 65) : Congress has power, therefore, to levy duties for the purpose of providing for the general welfare of the United States. Is the pro- vision for the payment of bounty to sugar-producers, above set forth, " for the general welfare " ? If this is the issue in the case, the importers are at once out of court. If, as this position apparently assumes, Congress has power to expend taxes for anything which, in its judgment, is "for the general welfare," then the court will assuredly not at- tempt to control the specific exercise of that power in any given case. Granted a power, the propriety of its exercise is obviously of legislative concern. 2 If Congress, on the contrary, as the importers 1 Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 199; Miller, Const., p. 231; I Story, Const., § 927. a Talbot v. Hudson, 16 Gray, 417, 421.