e importance under any interpretation
which it will bear. The power here established may be rendered a very
convenient instrument of justice, and be particularly beneficial on the
borders of contiguous States, where the effects liable to justice may be
suddenly and secretly translated, in any stage of the process, within a
foreign jurisdiction.

The power of establishing post roads must, in every view, be a harmless
power, and may, perhaps, by judicious management, become productive
of great public conveniency. Nothing which tends to facilitate the
intercourse between the States can be deemed unworthy of the public
care.

PUBLIUS

FEDERALIST No. 43

The Same Subject Continued (The Powers Conferred by the Constitution
Further Considered)

For the Independent Journal. Wednesday, January 23, 1788

MADISON

To the People of the State of New York:

THE FOURTH class comprises the following miscellaneous powers:

1. A power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by
securing, for a limited time, to authors and inventors, the exclusive
right to their respective writings and discoveries."

The utility of this power will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of
authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of
common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to
belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases
with the claims of individuals. The States cannot separately make
effectual provisions for either of the cases, and most of them have
anticipated the decision of this point, by laws passed at the instance
of Congress.

2. "To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of
particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the
government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over
all places purchased by the consent of the legislatures of the States in
which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dockyards, and other needful buildings."

The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of
government, carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by
every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of
its general supremacy. Without it, not only the public authority
might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but
a dependence of