State government. No act
of the General Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the
States jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess
by virtue of their sovereign power within their own limits in as full a
manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this
Government add to or diminish it.

May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more
zealously than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to
the laws of the States, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of
those children of the forest to their true condition, and by a speedy
removal to relieve them from all the evils, real or imaginary, present
or prospective, with which they may be supposed to be threatened.

Among the numerous causes of congratulation the condition of our impost
revenue deserves special mention, inasmuch as it promises the means of
extinguishing the public debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes
a strong illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff
upon our commercial interests.

The object of the tariff is objected to by some as unconstitutional, and
it is considered by almost all as defective in many of its parts.

The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several
States. The right to adjust those duties with a view to the
encouragement of domestic branches of industry is so completely
incidental to that power that it is difficult to suppose the existence
of the one without the other. The States have delegated their whole
authority over imports to the General Government without limitation or
restriction, saving the very inconsiderable reservation relating to
their inspection laws. This authority having thus entirely passed from
the States, the right to exercise it for the purpose of protection does
not exist in them, and consequently if it be not possessed by the
General Government it must be extinct. Our political system would thus
present the anomaly of a people stripped of the right to foster their
own industry and to counteract the most selfish and destructive policy
which might be adopted by foreign nations. This surely can not be the
case. This indispensable power thus surrendered by the States must be
within the scope of the authority on the subject expressly delegated to
Congress.

In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of Presidents
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have ea