limits of the United States"; and the committee to whom it was referred gave effect to it, by adding the words," and with the Indian tribes," to the end of the clause containing the grant of the commercial power. 2 The remaining powers of Congress may be considered in the order in which they were acted upon by the Convention. The powers to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, to coin money and regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures, were adopted without discussion and with entire unanimity, as they had been proposed in the draft prepared by the committee of detail. The power to establish post-offices was extended to embrace post-roads.3 These were succeeded by the subject of borrowing money and emitting bills on the credit of the United States; a power that was proposed to be given by the committee of detail, while they at the same time proposed to restrain the States from emitting bills of credit. I have not been able to discover upon what ground it was supposed to be proper or expedient to confer a power of emitting bills of credit on the United States, and to prohibit the States from doing the same thing. That the same thing was in contemplation in the two provisions reported by the committee, sufficiently appears from the debates and from the history of the times. The object of the 1 Elliot, V. 439. 2 Ibid. 506, 507. 3 Ibid. 434. Journal, Elliot, I. 245. prohibition on the States was to prevent the issue and circulation of paper money; the object of the proposed grant of power to the United States was to enable the government to employ a paper currency, when it should have occasion to do so. But the records of the discussions that have come down to us do not disclose the reasons which may have led to the supposition that a paper currency could be used by the United States with any more propriety or safety than by a State. One of the principal causes which had led to the experiment of making a national government with power to prevent such abuses, had been the frauds and injustice perpetrated by the States in their issues of paper money; and there was at this very time a loud and general outcry against the conduct of the people of Rhode Island, who had kept themselves aloof from the national Convention, for the express purpose, among others, of retaining to themselves the power to issue such a currency. It is possible that the phrase "emit bills on the credit of the United States" might have been left in the Constitution, without any other danger than the hazards of a doubtful construction, which would have confined its meaning to the issuing of certificates of debt under the power to "borrow money." But this was not the sense in which the term "bills of credit" was generally received throughout the country, nor the sense intended to be given to it in the clause which contained the prohibition on the States. The well-understood meaning of the term had reference to paper issues, intended to circulate as currency, and bearing the public promise to pay a sum of money at a future time, whether made or not made a legal tender in payment of debts. It would have been of no avail, therefore, to have added a prohibition against making such bills a legal tender. If a power to issue them should once be seen in the Constitution, or should be suspected by the people to be there, wrapt in the power of borrowing money, the instrument would array against itself a formidable and probably a fatal opposition. It was deemed wiser, therefore, even if unforeseen emergencies might in some cases make the exercise of such a power useful, to withhold it altogether. It was accordingly stricken out, by a vote of nine States against two, and the authority of Congress was thus confined to borrowing money on the credit of the United States, which appears to have been intended to include the issuing of government notes not transferable as currency.1 The clauses which authorize Congress to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, and to make rules as to captures on land and water,3 — the latter comprehending the grant of the entire prize jurisdiction, - -were assented to without discussion. Then came the consideration of the criminal jurisdiction in admiralty, and that over offences 4 1 See the debate, and Mr. Madison's explanation of his vote, Elliot, V. 434, 435, and the note on the latter page. 9. 2 Constitution, Art. I. § 8, clause 3 Ibid., clause 11. 4 Elliot, V. 436. against the law of nations. The committee of detail had authorized Congress "to declare the law and punishment of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, . . . . . ... and of offences against the law of nations." The expression to "declare the law," &c. was changed to the words "define and punish,” for the following reason. Piracy is an offence defined by the law of nations, and also by the common law of England. But in those codes a single crime only is designated by that term.1 It was necessary that Congress should have the power to declare whether this definition was to be adopted, and also to determine whether any other crimes should constitute piracy. In the same way, the term "felony" has a particular meaning in the common law, and it had in the laws of the different States of the Union a somewhat various meaning. It was necessary that Congress should have the power to adopt any definition of this term, and also to determine what other crimes should be deemed felonies. So also there were various offences known to the law of nations, and generally regarded as such by civilized States. But before Congress could have power to punish for any of those offences, it would be necessary that they, as the legislative organ of the nation, should determine and make known what acts were to be regarded as offences against the law of nations; and that the power to do this should include both the power to adopt from the 1 That is to say, it is the same crime, committed on the high seas, that is denominated robbery when committed on the land. code of public law offences already defined by that code, and to extend the definition to other acts. The term "declare" was therefore adopted expressly with a view to the ascertaining and creating of offences, which were to be treated as piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and as offences against the law of nations.' The same necessity for an authority to prescribe a previous definition of the crime of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States would seem to have been felt; and it was probably intended to be given by the terms "to provide for the punishment of" such counterfeiting.2 The power to "declare" war had been reported by the committee as a power to "make" war. There was a very general acquiescence in the propriety of vesting the war power in the legislature rather than the executive; but the former expression was substituted in place of the latter, in order, as it would seem, to signify that the legislature alone were to determine formally the state of war, but that the executive might be able to repel sudden attacks.3 The clause which enables Congress to grant "letters of marque and reprisal" was added to the war power, at a subsequent period, on the recommendation of a committee to whom were re 1 Madison, Elliot, V. 436, 437. 2 In the clause as it passed the Convention, the offence of counterfeiting was placed with the other crimes which Congress was to "define" and "punish "; but, on the revision of the Constitution, coun- |