Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/29

 CH. XVII.] difficulties attendant upon the subject, although it has been repeatedly brought to the attention of congress in most elaborate reports. Until congress shall fix a standard, the understanding seems to be, that the states possess the power to fix their own weights and measures; or, at least, the existing standards at the adoption of the constitution remain in full force. Under the confederation, congress possessed the like exclusive power. In England, the power to regulate weights and measures is said by Mr. Justice Blackstone to belong to the royal prerogative. But it has been remarked by a learned commentator on his work, that the power cannot, with propriety, be referred to the king's prerogative; for, from Magna Charta to the present time, there are above twenty acts of parliament to fix and establish the standard and uniformity of weights and measures.

§ 1118. The next power of congress is, "to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and "current coin of the United States." This power would naturally flow, as an incident, from the antecedent powers to borrow money, and regulate the coinage; and, indeed, without it those powers would be without any adequate sanction. This power would seem to be exclusive of that of the states, since it grows out of the constitution, as an appropriate means to carry into effect other delegated powders, not antecedently existing in the states.