Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/227

 CH. XXXIII.] and therefore is most generally the precursor of an appeal to arms by general hostilities. The security (as has been justly observed) of the whole Union ought not to be suffered to depend upon the petulance or precipitation of a single state. Under the confederation there was a like prohibition in a more limited form. According to that instrument, no state could grant letters of marque and reprisal, until after a declaration of war by the congress of the United States. In times of peace the power was exclusively confided to the general government. The constitution has wisely, both in peace and war, confided the whole subject to the general government. Uniformity is thus secured in all operations, which relate to foreign powers; and an immediate responsibility to the nation on the part of those, for whose conduct the nation is itself responsible.

§ 1351. The next prohibition is to coin money. We have already seen, that the power to coin money, and regulate the value thereof, is confided to the general government. Under the confederation a concurrent power was left in the states, with a restriction, that congress should have the exclusive power to regulate the alloy and value of the coin struck by the states. In this, as in many other cases, the constitution has made a great improvement upon the existing system. Whilst the alloy and value depended on the general government, a right of coinage in the several states could have no other effect, than to multiply expensive mints, and diversify the forms and weights of the circulating coins. The latter inconvenience would defeat one