Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/318

302 It should also be remembered that lotteries, if they exist at all in the United States, must do so under the authority of State laws; that Congress can not take from a lottery company the charter which a State Legislature has granted; or make the issue of its tickets illegal, or punish as a crime the action of the managers by whom the business of a lottery is carried on; and further, that any legislation to make lotteries illegal should inferentially pertain to the State; first, because no jurisdiction has been given under the Constitution to Congress, except by remote inference to interfere with this matter; and, second, because there is no doubt that there was a complete unanimity of opinion among its framers that lotteries were legitimate and unobjectionable instrumentalities of society, inasmuch as at the time the Constitution was framed they were authorized by the States and extensively employed throughout the country for the founding of schools and colleges, the erection of hospitals, and the construction of roads, bridges, and ferries. On the other hand, it does not admit of contention that under the exclusive power vested by the Constitution in the Federal Government to "establish post offices and post roads," the use of the mails for the transmission of lottery tickets and correspondence may be legitimately inhibited, or that the general business of lotteries may not be rightfully made subject to Federal taxation for the sole purpose of revenue. When the Provincial Legislature of Canada recently decided to suppress lotteries in the Dominion, the measures which it instituted for so doing were not made contingent in any way upon the power of taxation, but by the imposition of heavy fines and penalties, not only on those engaged in the business, but also upon those having lottery tickets in their possession.

During the early years of the late war, taxes were imposed on the circulation of the State banks, "manifestly with a view to raise revenue and inform the authorities of the amount of paper money in circulation, and for no other purpose." But in 1865 these taxes were greatly increased, not for revenue, but with the admitted intent of destroying all banking institutions chartered by the States, leaving only similar institutions chartered by the Federal Government in existence. The result sought was fully attained, and the constitutionality of the legislation by which it was achieved was subsequently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, which in the case of Veazie vs. Fenno (8 Wall., p. 552) nevertheless held that "the States possessed the power to grant charters to State banks," that "the power was incident to sovereignty, and that there was no limitation in the Federal Constitution" of such power. But in delivering the opinion of the court, the Chief Justice (Chase) declined to enter upon an inquiry whether the tax imposed on the State banks was so excessive as