Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/206

178 Power cannot be taken from the States by mere implication. Congress has no power to maintain paupers. Poor-laws belong to the States (Vanderbilt vs. Adams, 7 Wendel, 349; 1 Blackstone's Com., by Tucker, 249), although not strictly referable to sanitary or other police. The States have exclusive power to lay taxes for the support of paupers (9 Wheaton, 206). The Constitution of Kentucky, sanctioned by Congress, says States have power to exclude slaves as merchandise; the States have not ceded their ports for taxing or other purposes. The regulation of the number of passengers by Congress is not inconsistent with the imposition of terms on their landing by a State to support paupers, replenish her treasury, or exclude criminals. Though the means may be very similar, the powers are not identical (Marshall, C. J., 9 Wheatori, 204). Hides may be imported, and yet destroyed by the State if noisome. To recapitulate:

It must be regarded as still unsettled—

Whether the power to regulate foreign and inter-State commerce is vested in Congress to the exclusion of the States.

Whether a State law passed for a legitimate purpose, or whether a State tax, not otherwise objectionable, is unconstitutional, if it tends incidentally to regulate foreign or inter-State commerce.

Whether taxes or imports are intended, by the Constitution, to be included among regulations of commerce.

Whether passengers from foreign ports are in such a sense the subjects of commerce that taxes imposed on them, and exacted as a prerequisite to their landing, are regulations of commerce.

Whether passengers from foreign ports, after their arrival in a home port, but before landing, are imports.

Whether Congress has so legislated as impliedly to regulate commerce in foreign passengers by willing that it shall be free.

Whether single States have the right to exclude aliens from their boundaries.

Whether States may impose a tax per head on passengers from foreign ports, payable by the master before his being permitted to land them.

Whether States may exact bonds from ship-masters or others,