Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/486

 478 ," proceeded from an apprehension, that the power might be so exercised, as to disturb that equality among the states, which was generally advantageous, or that harmony between them, which it was desirable to preserve; or to maintain unimpaired our commercial connections with foreign nations; or to confer this source of revenue on the government of the Union; or, whatever other motive might have induced the prohibition; it is plain, that the ol3Ject would be as completely defeated by a power to tax the article in the hands of the importer, the instant it was landed, as by a power to tax it, while entering the port. There is no difference, in effect, between a power to prohibit the sale of an article, and a power to prohibit its introduction into the country. The one would be a necessary consequence of the other. No goods would be imported, if none could be sold. No object of any description can be accomplished by laying a duty on importation, which may not be accomplished with equal certainty by laying a duty on the thing imported in the hands of the importer. It is obvious, that the same power, which imposes a light duty, can impose a very heavy one, one which amounts to a prohibition. Questions of power do not depend on the degree, to which it may be exercised. If it may be exercised at all, it must be exercised at the will of those, in whose hands it is placed. If the tax may be levied in this form by a state, it may be levied to an extent, which will defeat the revenue by impost, so far, as it is drawn from importations into the particular state.

§ 1019. We are told, that such a wild and irrational abuse of power is not to be apprehended, and is not to be taken into view, when discussing its existence. All power may be abused; and if the fear of its abuse is