o determine on peace or war, to raise
armies and a navy, to call forth the militia and direct their operations
belongs to the General Government. These great powers, embracing the
whole scope of our foreign relations, being granted, on what principle
can it be said that the minor are withheld? Are not the latter clearly
and evidently comprised in the former? Nations are sometimes called upon
to perform to each other acts of humanity and kindness, of which we see
so many illustrious examples between individuals in private life. Great
calamities make appeals to the benevolence of mankind which ought not
to be resisted. Good offices in such emergencies exalt the character
of the party rendering them. By exciting grateful feelings they soften
the intercourse between nations and tend to prevent war. Surely if the
United States have a right to make war they have a right to prevent it.
How was it possible to grant to Congress a power for such minor purposes
other than in general terms, comprising it within the scope and policy
of that which conveyed it for the greater?

The right of appropriation is nothing more than a right to apply the
public money to this or that purpose. It has no incidental power, nor
does it draw after it any consequences of that kind. All that Congress
could do under it in the case of internal improvements would be to
appropriate the money necessary to make them. For every act requiring
legislative sanction or support the State authority must be relied on.
The condemnation of the land, if the proprietors should refuse to sell
it, the establishment of turnpikes and tolls, and the protection of the
work when finished must be done by the State. To these purposes the
powers of the General Government are believed to be utterly incompetent.

To the objection that the United States have no power in any instance
which is not complete to all the purposes to which it may be made
instrumental, and in consequence that they have no right to appropriate
any portion of the public money to internal improvements because they
have not the right of sovereignty and jurisdiction over them when made,
a full answer has, it is presumed, been already given. It may, however,
be proper to add that if this objection was well founded it would not
be confined to the simple case of internal improvements, but would
apply to others of high importance. Congress have a right to regulate
commerce. To give effect to this power it becomes n