Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/558

 550 be framed. Congress have a right to pass laws for raising revenue, and each state has a right to oppose their execution,—two rights directly opposed to each other;—and yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in an instrument, drawn for the express purpose of avoiding collisions between the states and the general government, by an assembly of the most enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever embodied for a similar purpose.

"In vain have these sages declared, that congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; in vain have they provided, that they shall have power to pass laws, which shall be necessary and proper to carry those powers into execution; that those laws and that constitution shall be the 'supreme law of the land, and that the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution and laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.' In vain have the people of the several states solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made them their paramount law, and individually sworn to support them whenever they were called on to execute any office. Vain provisions! ineffectual restrictions! vile profanations of oaths! miserable mockery of legislation! if the bare majority of the voters in any one state may, on a real or supposed knowledge of the intent, with which a law has been passed, declare themselves free from its operation,—say here it gives too little, there too much, and operates unequally,—here it suffers articles to be free, that ought to be taxed,—there it taxes those, that ought to be free—in this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to purposes, which we do not approve,—in that the amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are invested by the constitution with the right of deciding these questions according to their sound discretion; congress is composed of the representatives of all the states, and of all the people of all the states; but we, part of the people of one state, to whom the constitution has given no power on the subject, from whom it has expressly taken it away,—we, who have solemnly agreed, that this constitution shall be our law,—we, most of whom have sworn to support it,—we now abrogate this law, and swear, and force others to swear, that it shall not be obeyed;—and we do this, not because congress have no right to pass such laws; this we do not allege; but because they have passed them with improper views. They are unconstitutional, from the motives of those, who passed them, which we can never with certainty know, from their unequal operation, although it is impossible, from the nature of things, that they should be equal, and from the disposition, which we presume may be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has not been declared. This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in relation to laws, which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not stop there. It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the constitution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. The constitution declares, that the judicial powers of