pose
of increasing their revenue were defeated in this object by the
legislation of neighboring States admitting the same foreign articles
at lower rates. Hence jealousies and dangerous rivalries had sprung up
between the different States. It was chiefly in the desire to provide
a remedy for these evils that the Federal Convention originated. The
Constitution, for this purpose, conferred upon Congress the power to
regulate commerce in such a manner that duties should be uniform in all
the States composing the Confederacy, and, moreover, expressly provided
that "no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or
revenue to the ports of one State over those of another." If the
construction of a harbor or deepening the channel of a river be a
regulation of commerce, as the advocates of this power contend, this
would give the ports of the State within which these improvements were
made a preference over the ports of other States, and thus be a
violation of the Constitution.

It is not too much to assert that no human being in existence when the
Constitution was framed entertained the idea or the apprehension that
by conferring upon Congress the power to regulate commerce its framers
intended to embrace the power of constructing roads and canals and of
creating and improving harbors and deepening the channels of rivers
throughout our extensive Confederacy. Indeed, one important branch of
this very power had been denied to Congress in express terms by the
Convention. A proposition was made in the Convention to confer on
Congress the power "to provide for the cutting of canals when deemed
necessary." This was rejected by the strong majority of eight States to
three. Among the reasons given for this rejection was that "the expense
in such cases will fall on the United States and the benefits accrue
to the places where the canals may be cut."

To say that the simple power of regulating commerce embraces within
itself that of constructing harbors, of deepening the channels of
rivers--in short, of creating a system of internal improvements for the
purpose of facilitating the operations of commerce--would be to adopt
a latitude of construction under which all political power might be
usurped by the Federal Government. Such a construction would be in
conflict with the well-known jealousy against Federal power which
actuated the framers of the Constitution. It is certain that the power
in question is not enumerated among