impose taxes on the inhabitants of the states only, but extends equally to all places over which the Federal Government has jurisdiction; and applies to the District of Columbia, and to the territories, which are not represented in Congress.* The power of Congress to exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over the District of Columbia, includes the power of taxing its inhabitants. But Congress are not absolutely to exercise that power, though they may, in their discretion, extend a tax to all the territories of the United States, as well as to the states. A direct tax, if laid at all, must be laid according to the census; and, therefore, Congress has no authority to exempt any state from its due share of the burden; and although they are not under the same necessity of extending a tax to the unrepresented district, set apart for the seat of the Na tional Government, nor to the national territories, yet, if the tax be actually extended to them, the same constitutional rule of apportionment must be applied in levying it. This construction allowing a discretion in Congress as to the imposition of taxes upon the inhabitants of these territories, must, at all events, be admitted to be the most convenient, as the expense of collecting a tax in some of them might exceed its amount. Nor can this departure from the rule which holds representation and taxation to be inseparable, be considered very material or important with respect to those settlements which are still in their infancy, though rapidly advancing to manhood, and looking forward with perfect confidence to complete equality as soon as they attain the requisite maturity. As it relates to the District of Columbia, the construction * 5 Wheaton, 317. in question can hardly be regarded as impugning the great principle alluded to, inasmuch as its inhabitants have voluntarily relinquished the right of representation, and adopted the whole body of Congress as its legitimate government. A question, however, of much greater interest and importance has arisen, in, regard to this power of taxation, which, of late years, has been much discussed in our public councils, and has not yet ceased to agitate a portion of the Union. I refer to the authority of Congress to impose duties on articles of foreign importation for the encouragement and protection of domestic manufactures; and to the proceedings which call in question and deny the constitutional existence of any such authority in Congress, and denounce its exercise as usurpation. The constitutional validity of those acts of Congress which impose duties on importations, with that end in view, has never been presented as a point for adjudication in the Federal Courts, but a legislative construction in favour of the right of Congress to pass them was adopted and acted upon at the earliest period of the existence and operation of the Federal Government. Of late years, however, a controversy has arisen on the subject, which at one time threatened the peace and integrity of the Union; and which, though suspended, can by no means be considered as definitively settled, some examination of its merits may be useful, if not necessary. 66 Although Congress has the express and exclusive power to lay and collect duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States," yet it is denied that these words confer authority to lay duties and imposts for any other purposes than those of discharging the national debts, supporting the civil and military establishments of the government, and of carrying into effect the powers specifically enumerated, and vested by the Constitution in Congress; thus excluding from all share of meaning the last member of the clause, which specifies the "general welfare" as one of the objects for which this branch of taxation was wholly given up to the National Government. And while some contend that there is no express authority granted to Congress to lay duties on foreign commodities, in order to favour or protect similar productions and fabrics of our own growth or manufacture-nor any power, express or implied, to encourage domestic industry by any means whatsoever; and that no such authority or power arises from intendment, as necessary to carry into effect any of the enumerated powers; others allege that this authority, if it exist at all, can only be constitutionally exercised indirectly, as resulting incidentally from the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations; and that imposts beyond what may be requisite to provide a revenue to meet the necessary and ordinary expenditures of the government, can only be imposed to the extent required to countervail the commercial restrictions of other countries. You will perceive, in the first place, that this exposition of the power in question denies, in effect, any operation whatever to that branch of the clause in the Constitution by which it is supposed to be conferred; and thus adopts the opposite extreme to that latitude of construction which would give to the expressions relative to providing for the "general welfare," a meaning more extensive than any other part of the Constitution, and invest Congress with a general power of legislation. It is, however, a sound rule of construction, and admitted to be universal in its application, that the different parts of the same in strument are to be so expounded as to give effect to the whole, and to every portion susceptible of meaning. It is not to be presumed that the words in question were introduced without some object; they are not, therefore, to be excluded from all share in the interpretation of the clause, unless incapable of bearing any signification in connexion with those with which they are conjoined. But the specific ends embraced by these general terms cannot certainly be supposed to be comprised among those more definite objects, subsequently enumerated in another and separate clause in the same article of the Constitution; and it must therefore be intended that other objects were meant to be accomplished by means of the taxing power, than the payment of the "public debt," and providing for the "common defence ;" and that those farther objects comprehend everything to which the "general welfare" required the power to be applied, as the direct means of effecting the end proposed. A different view was, indeed, taken of this clause of the Constitution by the authors of "The Federalist;" ;" and that high authority has been quoted in support of a very different interpretation. In answering the objection urged against the general expres sions with which the clause concludes, as conferring a distinct and substantive power "to provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States," the authors of "The Federalist" do not advert to the circumstance that those expressions are used merely as a general and summary designation of the purpose for which taxes were to be laid, independently of the objects subsequently specified; but in refuting the objection, they seem to adopt, in part, the construction of their adversaries, and admit that the * No. 41. words in question confer a substantive and independent power, distinct from the power of taxation; and they meet the argument drawn from these terms, against this extensive and sweeping operation of the power, by alleging that it was restricted by the subsequent enumeration of the specific powers of Congress in the same section. It has since, however, been judicially decided, and is even admitted by those who, nevertheless, seek to avail themselves of this authority, that these words do not invest Congress with any power whatsoever distinct from the power of taxation, but that they merely refer to the purposes for which that power may be exercised. So far, moreover, from affording support to the argument against the power of Congress to encourage manufactures, two of the authors of "The Federalist," soon after the organization of the government, officially asserted that power to be exclusively vested in Congress, which body, they contended, was bound to exercise it. They derived it, indeed, from the power to regulate commerce; but the acknowledged construction of the clause conferring the power of taxation, referring to the exercise of that power, as the means or instrument of providing for the general welfare, affords an ampler basis for the right; and in order to establish it on this broader and more solid foundation, it becomes necessary to show that the "general welfare" is, in fact, promoted by imposing duties on foreign commodities to such an amount as to foster our home-manufactures. This is clearly a question of national policy and legislation, involving facts and opinions not cognizable, from their nature, in the judicial tribunals, but depending for their determination upon a sound exercise of legislative discretion. Their decision must of necessity belong to the National Legislature; for the states |