Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/119

 CH. XXIV.]. It had, for instance, power to establish courts for, the trial of prizes and piracies, to borrow money, and emit bills of credit. But how could these powers be put in operation without some other implied powers and means? The truth is, that, under the confederation, congress was from this very clause driven to the distressing alternative, either to violate the articles by a broad latitude of construction, or to suffer the powers of the government to remain prostrate, and the public service to be wholly neglected. It is notorious, that they adopted, and were compelled to adopt the former course; and the country bore them out in what might be deemed an usurpation of authority. The past experience of the country was, therefore, decisive against any such restriction. It was either useless, or mischievous.

§ 1234. Secondly. The convention might have attempted a positive enumeration of the powers comprehended under the terms, necessary and proper. The attempt would have involved a complete digest of laws on every subject, to which the constitution relates. It must have embraced all future, as well as all present exigencies, and been accommodated to all times, and all occasions, and all changes of national situation and character. Every new application of the general power must have been foreseen and specified; for the particular powers, which are the means of attaining the objects of the general power, must, necessarily, vary with those objects; and be often properly varied, when the objects