Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/545

 CH. XV.] over the country to interminable doubts; and to make the constitution not a written system of government, but a false and delusive text, upon which every successive age of speculatists and statesmen might build any system, suited to their own views and opinions. But if it be added to this, that the constitution gives the power in the most unlimited terms, and neither assigns motives, nor objects for its exercise; but leaves these wholly to the discretion of the legislature, acting for the common good, and the general interests; the argument in its favour becomes as absolutely irresistible, as any demonstration of a moral or political nature ever can be. Without such a power, the government would be absolutely worthless, and made merely subservient to the policy of foreign nations, incapable of self-protection or self-support ; with it, the country will have a right to assert its equality, and dignity, and sovereignty among the other nations of the earth.

§ 1089. In regard to the rejection of the proposition in the convention "to establish institutions, rewards, and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, commerce, trades, and manufactures," it is manifest, that it has no bearing on the question. It was a power much 68