Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/269

 power of Congress, even where the implied power is necessary, and brings it under the operation of those fundamental rules of universal acceptation, to determine which shall yield. Without this restriction, most of the reserved powers of the States — and, among them, those relating to their internal police, including the health, tranquillity, and safety of their people — might be made abortive, by the laws passed by Congress, to carry into effect the delegated powers; especially in regard to those regulating commerce, and establishing post offices and post roads.

The alterations finally made in this clause of the constitution, compared with it as originally reported by the committee on detail, deserve notice — as shedding considerable light on its phraseology and objects. As reported by that committee, it was in the following words: "The acts of the legislature of the United States, made in pursuance of this constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the several States, and of their citizens and inhabitants; and the Judges of the several States shall be bound thereby, in their decisions; any thing in the constitutions or laws of the several States to the contrary notwithstanding." After a long discussion of the plan of the constitution, as reported by this committee; and after many alterations were made, the whole, as amended, was referred to the committee of revision, or "style," as it was also called. This particular clause had received no amendment; and, of course, was referred as reported by the committee