Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/67

 CH. XXI.]

§ 1163. next power of congress is to "declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water."

§ 1164. A similar exclusive power was given to congress by the confederation. That such a power ought to exist in the national government, no one will deny, who believes, that it ought to have any powers whatsoever, either for offence or defence, for the common good, or for the common protection. It is, therefore, wholly superfluous to reason out the propriety of granting the power. It is self-evident, unless the national government is to be a mere mockery and shadow. The power could not be left without extreme mischief, if not absolute ruin, to the separate authority of the several states; for then it would be at the option of any one to involve the whole in the calamities and burthens of warfare. In the general government it is safe, because there it can be declared only by the majority of the states.

§ 1165. The only practical question upon this subject would seem to be, to what department of the national government it would be most wise and safe to confide this high prerogative, emphatically called the last resort of sovereigns, ultima ratio regum. In Great Britain it is the exclusive prerogative of the crown; and in