for the uniform regulation of trade. They found no means
but in a general government; and they recommended a convention to
accomplish that purpose. Over whatever other interests of the country
this government may diffuse its benefits and its blessings, it will
always be true, as matter of historical fact, that it had its immediate
origin in the necessities of commerce; and for its immediate object, the
relief of those necessities, by removing their causes, and by
establishing a uniform and steady system. It will be easy to show, by
reference to the discussions in the several State conventions, the
prevalence of the same general topics; and if any one would look to the
proceedings of several of the States, especially to those of
Massachusetts and New York, he would see very plainly, by the recorded
lists of votes, that wherever this commercial necessity was most
strongly felt, there the proposed new Constitution had most friends. In
the New York convention, the argument arising from this consideration
was strongly pressed, by the distinguished person[3] whose name is
connected with the present question.

We do not find, in the history of the formation and adoption of the
Constitution, that any man speaks of a general concurrent power, in the
regulation of foreign and domestic trade, as still residing in the
States. The very object intended, more than any other, was to take away
such power. If it had not so provided, the Constitution would not have
been worth accepting.

I contend, therefore, that the people intended, in establishing the
Constitution, to transfer from the several States to a general
government those high and important powers over commerce, which, in
their exercise, were to maintain a uniform and general system. From the
very nature of the case, these powers must be exclusive; that is, the
higher branches of commercial regulation must be exclusively committed
to a single hand. What is it that is to be regulated? Not the commerce
of the several States, respectively, but the commerce of the United
States. Henceforth, the commerce of the States was to be a _unit_, and
the system by which it was to exist and be governed must necessarily be
complete, entire, and uniform. Its character was to be described in the
flag which waved over it, E PLURIBUS UNUM. Now, how could individual
States assert a right of concurrent legislation, in a case of this sort,
without manifest encroachment and confusion? It should be re