The Project Gutenberg eBook ofOur Changing ConstitutionThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Our Changing ConstitutionAuthor: Charles W. PiersonRelease date: November 20, 2004 [eBook #14104]Most recently updated: December 18, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Linda Cantoni, and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR CHANGING CONSTITUTION ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Our Changing ConstitutionAuthor: Charles W. PiersonRelease date: November 20, 2004 [eBook #14104]Most recently updated: December 18, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Linda Cantoni, and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Title: Our Changing Constitution
Author: Charles W. Pierson
Author: Charles W. Pierson
Release date: November 20, 2004 [eBook #14104]Most recently updated: December 18, 2020
Language: English
Credits: Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Linda Cantoni, and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR CHANGING CONSTITUTION ***
Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Linda Cantoni, and the PG
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
[Illustration: decorative anchor]
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
Citizens of the United States are wont to think of their form of government, a political system based on a written constitution, as something fixed and stable. In reality, it is undergoing a profound change. The idea which constituted its most distinctive feature, and in the belief of many represents America's most valuable contribution to the science of government, is being forgotten. Formed to be "an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states," our dual system is losing its duality. The states are fading out of the picture.
The aim of this volume is to point out the change and discuss some of its aspects. A few chapters have already appeared in print. "Our Changing Constitution" and "Is the Federal Corporation Tax Constitutional?" were published in theOutlook. "The Corporation Tax Decision" appeared in theYale Law Journal. "Can Congress Tax the Income from State and Municipal Bonds?" was printed in the New YorkEvening Post. All of these have been more or less revised and some new matter has been added.
The American Constitution, its origin and contents. Wherein its novelty and greatness lay. Importance of maintaining the equilibrium established between national and state power. View of John Fiske.
Place of the Court in the constitutional scheme. Its most important function. Personnel of the Court. Its power moral rather than physical. Its chief weapon the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional. Limitations on this power—political questions; necessity of an actual controversy; abuses of legislative power. Erroneous popular impressions. Impairment of the constitutional conscience.
Change in popular attitude toward the Constitution. Causes of the change (growth of national consciousness, wars, foreign relations, influence of later immigrants and their descendants, desire to obtain federal appropriations, economic development, railroads, free trade among the states). Methods by which change has been put into effect (constitutional amendment, treaties, federal legislation under cover of power to regulate commerce and lay taxes). Attitude of the Supreme Court. Differences of opinion in the Court.
History and radical character of amendment. Efforts to defeat it in the courts. Unusual course taken by Supreme Court. Discussion of its true place in the development of American constitutional law. Less a point of departure than a spectacular manifestation of a change already under way. Effect of the change on the principle of local self-government.
Attitude of the Constitution toward question of suffrage qualifications. Effect of Civil War amendments. Growth of woman suffrage movement and adoption of Suffrage Amendment. How far the amendment constitutes a federal encroachment on state power. Effect of woman suffrage on questions of governmental theory.
The child labor question. Philanthropic and commercial aspects. Attemptof Congress to legislate under power to regulate commerce. Decision ofSupreme Court holding law unconstitutional. The decision explained.Reënactment of law by Congress under cover of power to lay taxes.Arguments for and against constitutionality of new enactment.
The Supreme Court at first a bulwark of national power; to-day the defender of the states. Explanation of this apparent change. Attitude of the Court in the first period. The period of Chief Justice Marshall. The period of Chief Justice Taney. The Reconstruction Period. Attitude of the Court to-day. Reasons why the Court is unable to prevent federal encroachment. Attitude of Hamilton and Marshall toward state rights misunderstood.
America's embarrassing position if the late war had come before adoption of Income Tax Amendment. Limitations of federal taxing power under the Constitution. Meaning of "uniformity." Apportionment of "direct taxes." The Supreme Court decision in the Income Tax cases in 1894 a reversal of long settled ideas. The Income Tax Amendment an example of recall of judicial decisions. Implied limitations on federal taxing power (compensation of federal judges, due process clause of the Constitution, no power to tax property or governmental activities of the states).
No express prohibition of such taxation; it lies in an implied limitation inherent in our dual system of government. Discussion of doctrine and its development by the Supreme Court. Effect of the Income Tax Amendment. Present dissatisfaction with doctrine and efforts to abolish it.
Nature of the tax. An interference with state power to grant corporate franchises. Nature of our dual government and Supreme Court decisions on the subject discussed. The debate in Congress.
Importance of the decision likely to be overlooked. Criticism of theCourt's arguments. Effects of the decision.
Origin and history of Sherman Act. Its meaning now clear. Earlier uncertainties owing chiefly to two questions—What is interstate trade and Does the act enlarge the common-law rule as to what restraints were unlawful? How these questions have been settled. Statement of the common-law rule. Incompatibility between the law and present economic conditions. Suggestions for legal reform. The holding company device, its abuses and the possibility of abolishing it. Advantages of the scheme of federal incorporation.
Rapid progress and present extent of federal encroachment on state power. Growth of federal bureaucracy. A reaction against centralization inevitable sooner or later. Adequacy of Constitution to deal with changing conditions. The railroads and the trusts. Dangerous assaults upon Constitution in field of social welfare legislation. Exercise of police power a matter for local authority. Elihu Root's view. Outlook for the future.
Few documents known to history have received as much praise as the United States Constitution. Gladstone called it "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." The casual reader of the Constitution will be at a loss to account for such adulation. It will seem to him a businesslike document, outlining a scheme of government in terse and well-chosen phrases, but he is apt to look in vain for any earmarks of special inspiration. To understand the true greatness of the instrument something more is required than a mere reading of its provisions.
The Constitution was the work of a convention of delegates from the states, who met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, and labored together for nearly four months. They included a large part of the best character and intellect of the country. George Washington presided over their deliberations. The delegates had not been called together for the purpose of organizing a new government. Their instructions were limited to revising and proposing improvements in the Articles of the existing Confederation, whose inefficiency and weakness, now that the cohesive power of common danger in the war of the Revolution was gone, had become a byword. This task, however, was decided to be hopeless, and with great boldness the convention proceeded to disregard instructions and prepare a wholly new Constitution constructed on a plan radically different from that of the Articles of Confederation. The contents of the Constitution, as finally drafted and submitted for ratification, may be described in few words. It created a legislative department consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, an executive department headed by a President, and a judicial department headed by a Supreme Court, and prescribed in general terms the qualifications, powers, and functions of each. It provided for the admission of new states into the Union and that the United States should guarantee to every state a republican form of government. It declared that the Constitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and treaties, should be the supreme law of the land. It provided a method for its own amendment. Save for a few other brief clauses, that was all. There was no proclamation of Democracy; no trumpet blast about the rights of man such as had sounded in the Declaration of Independence. On the contrary, the instrument expressly recognized human slavery, though in discreet and euphemistic phrases.
Wherein, then, did the novelty and greatness of the Constitution lie? Its novelty lay in the duality of the form of government which it created—a nation dealing directly with its citizens and yet composed of sovereign states—and in its system of checks and balances. The world had seen confederations of states. It was familiar with nations subdivided into provinces or other administrative units. It had known experiments in pure democracy. The constitutional scheme was none of these. It was something new, and its novel features were relied upon as a protection from the evils which had developed under the other plans. The greatness of the Constitution lay in its nice adjustment of the powers of government, notably the division of powers which it effected between the National Government and the states. The powers conferred on the National Government were clearly set forth. All were of a strictly national character. They covered the field of foreign relations, interstate and foreign commerce, fiscal and monetary system, post office and post roads, patents and copyrights, and jurisdiction over certain specified crimes. All other powers were reserved to the states or the people. In other words, the theory was (to quote Bryce's "The American Commonwealth") "local government for local affairs; general government for general affairs only."
The Constitution as it left the hands of its framers was not entirely satisfactory to anybody. Owing to the discordant interests and mutual jealousies of the states, it was of necessity an instrument of many compromises. One of the great compromises was that by which the small states were given as many senators as the large. Another is embalmed in the provisions recognizing slavery and permitting slaves to count in the apportionment of representatives. (The number of a state's representatives was to be determined "by adding to the whole number of free persons … three-fifths of all other persons.") Another was the provision that direct taxes should be apportioned among the states according to population. With all its compromises, however, the Constitution embodied a great governmental principle, full of hope for the future of the country, and the state conventions to which it was submitted for ratification were wise enough to accept what was offered. Ratification by certain of the states was facilitated by the publication of that remarkable series of papers afterward known as the "Federalist." These were the work of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, and first appeared in New York newspapers.
One of the objections to the new Constitution in the minds of many people was the absence of a "bill of rights" containing those provisions for the protection of individual liberty and property (e.g., trial by jury, freedom of speech, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures) which had come down from the early charters of English liberties. In deference to this sentiment a series of ten brief amendments were proposed and speedily ratified. Another amendment (No. XI) was soon afterward adopted for the purpose of doing away with the effect of a Supreme Court decision. Thereafter, save for a change in the manner of electing the President and Vice-president, the Constitution was not again amended until after the close of the Civil War, when Amendments XIII, XIV, and XV, having for their primary object the protection of the newly enfranchised Negroes, were adopted. The Constitution was not again amended until the last decade, when the Income Tax Amendment, the amendment providing for the election of Senators by popular vote, the Prohibition Amendment, and the Woman Suffrage Amendment were adopted in rapid succession. Some of these will be discussed in later chapters.
It is interesting to note that two of the amendments (No. XI, designed to prevent suits against a state without its permission by citizens of another state, and No. XVI, paving the way for the Income Tax) were called forth by unpopular decisions of the Supreme Court, and virtually amounted to a recall of those decisions by the people. These instances demonstrate the possibility of a recall of judicial decisions by constitutional methods, and tend to refute impatient reformers who preach the necessity of a more summary procedure. Such questions, however, lie outside the scope of this book. We emphasize here the fact that the great achievement of the Constitution was the creation of a dual system of government and the apportionment of its powers. That was what made it "one of the longest reaches of constructive statesmanship ever known in the world."[1] It offered the most promising solution yet devised for the problem of building a nation without tearing down local self-government.
[Footnote 1: Fiske: "The Critical Period of American History," p. 301.]
John Fiske, the historian, writing of the importance of preserving the constitutional equilibrium between nation and states, said:[1]
If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid!) when the people of the different parts of our country shall allow their local affairs to be administered by prefects sent from Washington, and when the self-government of the states shall have been so far lost as that of the departments of France, or even so far as that of the counties of England—on that day the progressive political career of the American people will have come to an end, and the hopes that have been built upon it for the future happiness and prosperity of mankind will be wrecked forever.
[Footnote 1: Id., p. 238.]
If allowance be made for certain extravagances of statement, these words will serve as a fitting introduction to the discussions which follow.
The Constitution effected an apportionment of the powers of government between nation and states. The maintenance of the equilibrium thus established was especially committed to the Supreme Court. This novel office, the most important of all its great functions, makes the Court one of the most vital factors of the entire governmental scheme and gives it a unique preëminence among the judicial tribunals of the world.
How the office has been performed, and whether the constitutional equilibrium is actually being maintained, are the questions to be considered in this book. Before taking them up, however, it will be useful to glance briefly at the Court itself and inquire how it is equipped for its difficult task.
The United States Supreme Court at present is composed of nine judges. The number originally was six. It now holds its sessions at the Capitol in Washington, in the old Senate Chamber which once echoed with the eloquence of the Webster-Hayne debate. The judges are nominated by the President, and their appointment, like that of ambassadors, must be confirmed by the Senate. The makers of the Constitution took the utmost care to insure the independence of the Court. Its members hold office during good behavior, that is to say for life. They cannot be removed except by impeachment for misconduct. Only one attempt has ever been made to impeach a judge of the Supreme Court[1] and that attempt failed. Still further to insure their freedom from legislative control, the Constitution provides that the compensation of the judges shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.[2]
[Footnote 1: Justice Samuel Chase of Maryland in 1804-5.]
[Footnote 2: It is interesting to observe that this Court, safeguarded against popular clamor and composed of judges appointed for life, has consistently shown itself more progressive and more responsive to modern ideas than have most of the state Supreme Courts whose members are elected directly by the people and for limited terms only.]
From the time of John Jay, the first Chief Justice, down to the present day the men appointed to membership in the Court have, for the most part, been lawyers of the highest character and standing, many of whom had already won distinction in other branches of the public service. The present Chief Justice (Taft) is an ex-President of the United States. Among the other members of the Court are a former Secretary of State of the United States (Justice Day); two former Attorneys General of the United States (Justices McKenna and McReynolds); a former Chief Justice of Massachusetts (Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the distinguished son and namesake of an illustrious father); a former Chief Justice of Wyoming (Justice Van Devanter); and a former Chancellor of New Jersey (Justice Pitney).
It is well that the personnel of the Court has been such as to command respect and deference, for in actual power the judiciary is by far the weakest of the three coördinate departments (legislative, executive, judicial) among which the functions of government were distributed by the Constitution. The power of the purse is vested in Congress: it alone can levy taxes and make appropriations. The Executive is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy and wields the appointing power. The Supreme Court controls neither purse nor sword nor appointments to office. Its power is moral rather than physical. It has no adequate means of enforcing its decrees without the coöperation of other branches of the Government.
That coöperation has not always been forthcoming. In the year 1802, Congress, at the instigation of President Jefferson, the inveterate enemy of Chief Justice Marshall, suspended the sessions of the Court for more than a year by abolishing the August term. In 1832, when the State of Georgia defied the decree of the Court in a case involving the status of the Cherokee Indians, the other departments of the Federal Government gave no aid and President Andrew Jackson is reported to have remarked: "John Marshall has made the decision, now let him execute it." In 1868, Congress, in order to forestall decision in a case pending before the Court, hastily repealed the statute on which the jurisdiction of the Court depended.[1] Such instances, however, have been rare. The law-abiding instinct is strong in the American people, and for the most part the decisions of the Supreme Court have been received with respect and unquestioning obedience.
[Footnote 1: Seeex parte McCardle, 6 Wall. (Supreme Court Reports), 318; 7id., 506.]
The chief weapon in the arsenal of the Court is the power to declare legislative acts void on the ground that they overstep limits established by the people in the Constitution. This power has been frequently exercised. It is stated that the congressional statutes thus nullified have not numbered more than thirty, while at least a thousand state laws have been nullified.[1]
[Footnote 1: Brief of Solicitor General James M. Beck in the Child Labor Tax cases. It is to be borne in mind that there are forty-eight state legislatures and only one Congress.]
The assumption of this power in the Court to declare statutes unconstitutional has been bitterly assailed, and is still denounced in some quarters, as judicial usurpation originated by John Marshall.
On the historical side this objection is not well founded. Various state courts had exercised the power to declare statutes unconstitutional before the Supreme Court came into existence.[1] The framers of the Constitution clearly intended that such a power should be exercised by the Supreme Court.[2] Moreover, a somewhat similar power appears to have been exercised long before in England,[3] though it gave place later to the present doctrine of the legal omnipotence of Parliament.
[Footnote 1: See Bryce: "The American Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 250.]
[Footnote 2: See e.g., "Federalist," No. LXXVIII.]
[Footnote 3: See opinion of Lord Coke in Bonham's Case, 8 Coke'sReports, 118, decided in 1610.]
On the side of reason and logic, the argument in favor of the power formulated more than a century ago by Chief Justice Marshall has never been adequately answered and is generally accepted as final. He said:[1]
The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the Constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?… The Constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act, contrary to the Constitution, is not law: if the latter part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.
[Footnote 1:Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 176.]
It would seem at first blush that the power in the Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional affords a complete safeguard against congressional encroachment on the prerogatives of the states. Such is not the fact, however. The veto power of the Court by no means covers the entire field of legislative activity. In the Convention which framed the Constitution, attempts were made to give to the judiciary, in conjunction with the executive, complete power of revision over legislative acts, but all such propositions were voted down.[1] As matters stand, there may be violations of the Constitution by Congress (or for that matter by the executive) of which the Court can take no cognizance.
[Footnote 1: See e.g., Farrand: "Records of the Federal Convention,"Vol. I, pp. 138 et seq.; Vol. II, p. 298.]
For one thing, the Court cannot deal with questions of a political character. The function of the Court is judicial only. Upon this ground it was decided that the question which of two rival governments in the State of Rhode Island was the legitimate one was for the determination of the political department of government rather than the courts;[1] that the question, whether the adoption by a state of the initiative and referendum violated the provision of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing to every state a republican form of government, was political and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the Court.[2] In 1867 a sovereign state sought to enjoin the President of the United States from enforcing an act of Congress alleged to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, without determining the constitutionality of the act, declined to interfere with the exercise of the President's political discretion.[3] In the famous Dred Scott case[4] the effort of the Supreme Court to settle a political question accomplished nothing save to impair the influence and prestige of the Court.
[Footnote 1:Luther v. Borden, 7 Howard, 1.]
[Footnote 2:Pacific Telephone Co. v. Oregon, 223 U.S., 118.]
[Footnote 3:State of Mississippi v. Andrew Johnson, 4 Wall., 475.]
[Footnote 4:Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 Howard, 393.]
The power of the Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional is subject to another important limitation. The judicial power is limited by the Constitution to actual cases and controversies between opposing parties. The Court cannot decide moot questions or act as an adviser for other departments of the government. A striking illustration is found in the so-called Muskrat case.[1] Congress having legislated concerning the distribution of property of the Cherokee Indians, and doubts having arisen as to the constitutional validity of the legislation, Congress passed another act empowering one David Muskrat and other Cherokee citizens to file suit, naming the United States as defendant, to settle the question. The Supreme Court declined to take jurisdiction and dismissed the suit, holding that it was not a case or controversy between opposing parties within the meaning of the Constitution.
[Footnote 1:Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S., 346.]
Still another limitation is encountered in cases involving abuse of legislative power rather than lack of power. If Congress passes an act within one of the powers expressly conferred upon it by the Constitution, for example the power to lay taxes or the power to regulate interstate commerce, the Supreme Court cannot interfere though the incidental effect and ulterior purpose of the legislation may be to intrude upon the field of state power. We shall have occasion to refer to this limitation more than once in later chapters.
An impression is abroad that the Supreme Court has plenary power to preserve the Constitution. Hence the tendency of groups to demand, and of legislators to enact, any kind of a law without regard to its constitutional aspect, leaving that to be taken care of by the Court.
Any such impression is erroneous and unfortunate. It puts upon the Court a burden beyond its real powers. It undermines the sense of responsibility which should exist among the elected representatives of the people. It impairs what someone has called the constitutional conscience, and weakens the vigilance of the people in preserving their liberties. Men and women need to be reminded that the duty of upholding the Constitution does not devolve upon the Supreme Court alone. It rests upon all departments of government and, in the last analysis, upon the people themselves.
In a celebrated case[1] decided a few years ago the Supreme Court of theUnited States said:
The Constitution is a written instrument. As such its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when adopted it means now. Being a grant of powers to a government its language is general, and as changes come in social and political life it embraces in its grasp all new conditions which are within the scope of the powers in terms conferred. In other words, while the powers granted do not change, they apply from generation to generation to all things to which they are in their nature applicable. This in no manner abridges the fact of its changeless nature and meaning. Those things which are within its grants of power, as those grants were understood when made, are still within them, and those things not within them remain still excluded….
To determine the extent of the grants of power we must, therefore, place ourselves in the position of the men who framed and adopted the Constitution, and inquire what they must have understood to be the meaning and scope of those grants.
[Footnote 1:South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S., 437.]
Thus speaks the voice whose word is law.
Viewed in the sense intended—as the formulation of a legal rule for the interpretation and construction of a written instrument—the statement compels assent. As a statement of historical and political fact, however, it would not be accepted so readily. An acute critic of our institutions has said that the Constitution "has changed in the spirit with which men regard it, and therefore in its own spirit."[1] Men realize that the words of the Constitution, like the words of Holy Writ, have not always meant the same thing to those who regulate their conduct by its precepts; that the system of government which those words embody has in reality changed, is changing to-day.
[Footnote 1: Bryce: "The American Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 400.]
The makers of the Constitution represented the people of distinct and independent states, jealous of their rights and of each other but nevertheless impelled by experience of danger lately past and sense of other perils impending to substitute for their loose and ill-working confederation a more effective union. The most formidable obstacle, apart from mutual jealousies, was a fear of loss of liberties, state and individual, through encroachment of the central power. The instrument, drawn with this fear uppermost, was designed to limit the National Government to "the irreducible minimum of functions absolutely needed for the national welfare."[1] To this end the powers granted were specifically enumerated. All other powers were by express enactment[2] "reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
[Footnote 1: Bryce, "The American Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 324.]
[Footnote 2: Tenth Amendment.]
The strength of the popular sentiment against any encroachment of federal power was speedily demonstrated in a striking and dramatic way. Under the grant of power to determine controversies "between a state and citizens of another state"[1] the Supreme Court in 1793 proceeded to entertain a suit by one Chisholm, a citizen of South Carolina, against the State of Georgia.[2] It had not been supposed that the grant of power contemplated such a suit against a state without its consent. The decision aroused an indescribable state of popular fury, not only in Georgia but throughout the Union, and led to the adoption of a constitutional amendment[3] prohibiting such suits in future.
[Footnote 1: Art. III, Sec. 2.]
[Footnote 2: See 2 Dallas, 419.]
[Footnote 3: Eleventh Amendment.]
There is a long step between such an attitude toward the Constitution and the viewpoint which finds in it authority for the enactment by Congress of White Slave and Child Labor laws. Obviously there has been a profound change in what the Constitution means to its adherents. It will be interesting to consider briefly what has caused the change of view, and how it has been put into effect.
To one searching for causes the most striking phenomenon is the growth of a national consciousness. At the outset it was practically non-existent. To-day its power has astonished enemy and friend alike. Its growth has been due to both pressure from without and developments within. Our foreign wars, especially the war with Germany, have drawn the people together and enhanced the importance of interests purely national. Some of our other foreign relations have brought into relief the advantages of a strong central government as well as certain inconveniences of our system as it left the hands of the framers. Witness the embarrassment toward Italy growing out of lack of federal jurisdiction in respect of the New Orleans riots, and the ever-present danger to our relations with Japan from acts of the sovereign State of California which the Federal Government is powerless to control. Among developments from within was the Civil War, with its triumph for the idea of national supremacy and an indissoluble union. Another, which has hardly received the attention it deserves, has been the influence of the large element of our population composed of immigrants since the Revolution and their descendants. The state sovereignty doctrine was not a mere political dogma but had its roots in history. It was an expression of the pride of the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies in their respective commonwealths. To them it stood for patriotism and traditions. These feelings the later immigrant neither shared nor understood. When he gave up his Old World allegiance and emigrated he came to America, not to New York or Massachusetts. To him the nation was everything, the state merely an administrative subdivision of the nation.
Another cause has been the desire to obtain aid in local matters from the national treasury. This has proved an exceedingly potent and insidious influence, leading state officials to surrender voluntarily state prerogatives in exchange for appropriations of federal money. Notable examples of this influence may be found in the field of river and harbor improvements, the creation of various new bureaus in the Department of Commerce, the enormous extension of the activities of the Agricultural Department and the Bureau of Education. The temptation in this direction is particularly strong among the less prosperous states, for it means the expenditure in those states of federal moneys raised chiefly from the taxpayers in wealthier states.
The most potent influence of all, however, has been the matter of internal economic development, stimulated by free trade among the states. This development has gone on apace with little regard for state lines. The invention of railways drew the different sections of the country together in a common growth, and tended to make the barriers interposed by state lines and state laws seem artificial and cumbersome. In fact, they sometimes came to be regarded as intolerable and destructive of progress. The spectacle of men clamoring for federal control of their industries to escape the burdens of a diversified state interference has been a frequent phenomenon of recent years.[1]
[Footnote 1: See e.g. the efforts of the life insurance interests:N.Y.Life Ins. Co. v. Deer Lodge County, 231 U.S., 495.]
The foregoing enumeration by no means covers all the forces which have been at work. In recent years a strong tendency toward centralization and combination has developed, a tendency pervading all the interests and activities of men. Moreover, new views have arisen concerning the functions and scope of government, views challenging thelaissez fairedoctrines of earlier days and demanding a greater measure of governmental interference with the affairs of the individual. These tendencies, however, are not peculiar to America and lie outside the scope of the present discussion.
In considering the methods by which the change of spirit toward the Constitution has been put into effect, one is struck by the comparatively small part played by the only method contemplated by the framers, viz., constitutional amendment. This method is entirely practicable and fairly expeditious provided a sufficient number favor the change proposed. In the one hundred years prior to the recent Income Tax Amendment, however, only three amendments were enacted (Numbers XIII, XIV, and XV), all of them dealing primarily with the abolition of slavery and the civil rights of the Negro. The only one which need be noticed here is Number XIV, which substituted a federal test of citizenship for state tests and provided that no state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." There was nothing new in these prohibitions. In substance they are as old as Magna Charta and were already embodied in most if not all of the state constitutions. The novelty lay in bringing the question, whether a state had in fact denied due process of law to an individual or corporation, within the jurisdiction of the federal courts. From a legal viewpoint this was a change of great importance. To the general student of constitutional government, however, it is less significant than others presently to be mentioned.
Right here it may be proper to notice a new theory of construction of the Constitution, not yet accepted but strenuously urged and containing enormous potentialities. This is the "doctrine of sovereign and inherent power," i.e., the doctrine that powers of national scope for whose exercise no express warrant is found in the Constitution are nevertheless to be implied as inherent in the very fact of sovereignty. This is a very different thing from the famous doctrine of implied powers developed by Chief Justice Marshall—that all powers will be implied which are suitable for carrying into effect any power expressly granted. It is a favorite theory of what may be termed the Roosevelt school. They consider that it is rendered necessary by the discovery of fields suitable for legislative cultivation, lying outside the domain of state power but not within the scope of any express grant of power to the nation. As practical men they abhor the existence of such a constitutional no man's land as nature abhors a vacuum.
During the presidency of Mr. Roosevelt a determined effort was made by the representatives of the Administration[1] to secure the recognition by the Supreme Court of the doctrine of sovereign and inherent power. It was claimed in the brief filed by the Attorney General and Solicitor General that the doctrine had already been applied by the Court in the Legal Tender cases.[2] The effort failed, however, the Court declaring that any such power, if necessary to the nation, must be conferred through constitutional amendment by the people, to whom all powers not granted had been expressly reserved by the Tenth Amendment.
[Footnote 1: InKansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S., 46.]
[Footnote 2: Bryce makes a statement to the same effect. "The AmericanCommonwealth," Vol. I, p. 383.]
A method by which the federal power and jurisdiction have been much extended has been the occupation by Congress, through legislation of an exclusive character, of fields where the states had exercised a concurrent jurisdiction. A familiar example is found in federal bankruptcy laws. Another and striking example is the so-called "Carmack Amendment" of the federal Interstate Commerce law. The question of liability for loss or damage to goods in the hands of railways and other carriers had been a fruitful field for state legislatures and state courts. The Carmack Amendment brushed away at a single stroke whole systems of state statutes and judicial decisions (in so far as they affected traffic across state lines) and substituted a uniform system under the control of the federal courts.
The federal power has also been extended at the expense of the states through the use of the treaty-making prerogative. The subjects upon which Congress may legislate are limited by specific enumeration. The treaty-making power, however, is not thus limited. Treaties may cover any subject. It follows that while the Federal Government has no power (for example) to regulate the descent of real property in the various states the treaty-making power permits it, by treaties with foreign nations, to destroy the alienage laws of the states.[1] Another very recent example is afforded by the Migratory Bird Treaty with Great Britain.[2] One will search the Constitution in vain for any grant of power to the Federal Government to enact game laws. Nevertheless, under this treaty, many state game laws have been practically annulled.
[Footnote 1:Hauenstein v. Lynham, 100 U.S., 483.]
[Footnote 2: Sustained by the Supreme Court inMissouri v. Holland, 252 U.S., 416.]
But the most far-reaching method by which federal power under the Constitution has been extended has been the adaptation—some will say the perversion—by Congress of old grants of power to new ends. Under the spur of public sentiment Congress has discovered new legislative possibilities in familiar clauses of the Constitution as one discovers new beauties in a familiar landscape. The clause offering the greatest possibilities has been the so-called Commerce Clause, which grants to Congress power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states."[1] Under this grant of power Congress has enacted, and the courts have upheld, a great mass of social and economic legislation having to do only remotely with commerce. For example, the Sherman Act and other anti-trust legislation, ostensibly mere regulations of commerce, but actually designed for the control and suppression of trusts and monopolies; the federal Pure Food and Drugs Act, designed to prevent the adulteration or mis-branding of foods and drugs and check the abuses of the patent-medicine industry;[2] the act for the suppression of lotteries, making it a crime against the United States to carry or send lottery tickets or advertisements across state lines;[3] an act to prevent the importation of prize-fight films.[4] These are only a few among many similar statutes which might be mentioned. In all of them the motive is clear. There is no concealment about it. Their primary object is to suppress or regulate the trusts, lotteries, patent-medicine frauds. The regulation of commerce is merely a matter of words and legal form.
[Footnote 1: Art. I, Sec. 8.]
[Footnote 2:Hipolite Egg Company v. United States, 220 U.S., 45.]
[Footnote 3:Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S., 321.]
[Footnote 4:Weber v. Freed, 239 U.S., 325.]
Especially noteworthy is the rapidly expanding body of social legislation—federal Employers' Liability Act, Hours of Service acts, Child Labor Law, White Slave Act and the like, all drawn with an eye to the commerce clause but designed to accomplish objects quite distinct from the regulation of commerce.
As already said, the Commerce Clause has been found most available for purposes of such legislation. Other clauses have, however, served their turn. For example, the grant of power to lay taxes was utilized to destroy an extensive industry obnoxious to the dairy interests—the manufacture of oleomargarine artificially colored to look like butter.[1] Also to invade the police power of the States in respect of the regulation of the sale and use of narcotic drugs.[2] Also to check speculation and extortion in the sale of theatre tickets![3] The power to borrow money and create fiscal agencies was utilized to facilitate the making of loans upon farm security at low rates of interest through the incorporation of Federal land banks or Joint Stock land banks.[4]
[Footnote 1:McCray v. United States, 195 U.S., 27.]
[Footnote 2: Narcotic Drug Act. Held constitutional inUnited States v.Doremus, 249 U.S., 86;Webb v. United States, 249 U.S., 96.]
[Footnote 3: Revenue Act of 1921, Title VIII, subdivisions 2 and 3.]
[Footnote 4:Smith v. Kansas City Title Co., 255 U.S., 180.]
It would be an insult to intelligence to claim that legislation such as this, wearing the form of revenue measure or regulation of commerce but in reality enacted with a different motive, does not involve an enormous extension of the national power beyond what the makers of the Constitution supposed they were conferring or intended to confer. What, then, of the declaration by the Supreme Court with which we began, that "to determine the extent of the grants of power we must place ourselves in the position of the men who framed and adopted the Constitution, and inquire what they must have understood to be the meaning and scope of these grants." The answer must be that the Court itself has not always adhered strictly to this test. The Court has taken the position that when power exists under the Constitution to legislate upon a given subject—say interstate commerce or taxation—it is not for the judiciary to seek to correct abuses by Congress of that power, or to question Congressional motives. As said in the decision sustaining the constitutionality of the oleomargarine law:[1]
The judiciary is without authority to avoid an act of Congress lawfully exerting the taxing power, even in a case where to the judicial mind it seems that Congress had, in putting such power in motion, abused its lawful authority by levying a tax which was unwise or oppressive, or the result of the enforcement of which might be to indirectly affect subjects not within the powers delegated to Congress, nor can the judiciary inquire into the motive or purpose of Congress in adopting a statute levying an excise tax within its constitutional power.
[Footnote 1:McCray v. United States, 195 U.S., 27.]
The Court, however, has had great difficulty with these cases and developed sharp differences of opinion. For example, the case upholding the anti-lottery statute as a valid exercise of the power to regulate commerce[1] was twice ordered for reargument and finally decided by a bare majority of 5 to 4. The Child Labor Law of 1916 was declared unconstitutional[2] and the Narcotic Drug Act was sustained[3] by a similar vote, 5 to 4. In the Narcotic Drug case the four dissenting justices, speaking through Chief Justice White, characterized portions of the statute as "beyond the constitutional power of Congress to enact … a mere attempt by Congress to exert a power not delegated, that is, the reserved police power of the states." In the Lottery case the dissenting opinion of the four, written by Chief Justice Fuller, concludes:
I regard this decision as inconsistent with the views of the framers of the Constitution, and of Marshall, its great expounder. Our form of government may remain notwithstanding legislation or decision, but, as long ago observed, it is with governments, as with religions, the form may survive the substance of the faith.
[Footnote 1:Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S., 321.]
[Footnote 2:Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S., 251.]
[Footnote 3:United States v. Doremus, 249 U.S., 86.]
Whatever view one may hold to-day as to the question of expediency, no thoughtful mind can escape the conclusion that, in a very real and practical sense, the Constitution has changed. In a way change is inevitable to adapt it to the conditions of the new age. There is danger, however, that in the process of change something may be lost; that present-day impatience to obtain desired results by the shortest and most effective method may lead to the sacrifice of a principle of vital importance.
The men who framed the Constitution were well advised when they sought to preserve the integrity of the states as a barrier against the aggressions and tyranny of the majority acting through a centralized power. The words "state sovereignty" acquired an odious significance in the days of our civil struggle, but the idea for which they stand is nevertheless a precious one and represents what is probably America's most valuable contribution to the science of government.
We shall do well not to forget the words of that staunch upholder of national power and authority, Salmon P. Chase, speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in a famous case growing out of the Civil War:[1]
The preservation of the states, and the maintenance of their governments, are as much within the design and care of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the National Government. The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states.
[Footnote 1:Texas v. White, 7 Wall., 700.]
Could Washington, Madison, and the other framers of the Federal Constitution revisit the earth in this year of grace 1922, it is likely that nothing would bewilder them more than the recent Prohibition Amendment. Railways, steamships, the telegraph, the telephone, automobiles, flying machines, submarines—all these developments of science, unknown in their day, would fill them with amazement and admiration. They would marvel at the story of the rise and downfall of the German Empire; at the growth and present greatness of the Republic they themselves had founded. None of these things, however, would seem to them to involve any essential change in the beliefs and purposes of men as they had known them. The Prohibition Amendment, on the contrary, would evidence to their minds the breaking down of a principle of government which they had deemed axiomatic, the abandonment of a purpose which they had supposed immutable. As students of the science of government they would realize that the most fundamental change which can overtake a free people is a change in their frame of mind, for to that everything else must sooner or later conform.
The amendment was proposed by Congress in 1917 and proclaimed as having been ratified in 1919.[1]
[Footnote 1: 40 Stat. 1050, 1941.]
The comparative ease and dispatch with which it was put through argue alike the skill and vigor of its sponsors and the strength of the sentiment behind them. Legal warfare over the amendment did not end, however, with its ratification by the legislatures of the requisite number of states. Passions had been aroused. Vast property interests were menaced. Moreover, in the minds of students of government the amendment stirred misgivings which were quite independent of the sentimental and material considerations involved. Eminent counsel were retained and a determined effort was made to defeat or nullify the amendment in the courts. To this end suits were begun in various jurisdictions to test its validity and enjoin the enforcement of the Volstead Act, which sought to carry it into effect. Two sovereign states (Rhode Island and New Jersey) joined in the attack and through their respective Attorneys General brought original suits in the United States Supreme Court to have the amendment declared invalid. Seven test cases were argued together in the Supreme Court, five days in all being devoted to the argument. It will be of interest to note some of the reasons advanced against the validity of the amendment, as they are summarized in the official report.[1]
[Footnote 1: National Prohibition cases, 253 U.S., 350.]
The Attorney General of the State of Rhode Island argued[1] that:
The amendment is an invasion of the sovereignty of the complaining state and her people, not contemplated by the amending clause of the Constitution. The amending power … is not a substantive power but a precautionary safeguard inserted incidentally to insure the ends set forth in that instrument against errors and oversights committed in its formation. Amendments, as the term indeed implies, are to be limited to the correction of such errors….
It is "This Constitution" that may be amended. "This Constitution" is not a code of transient laws but a framework of government and an embodiment of fundamental principles. By an amendment, the identity or purpose of the instrument is not to be changed; its defects may be cured, but "This Constitution" must remain. It would be the greatest absurdity to contend that there was a purpose to create a limited government and at the same time to confer upon that government a power to do away with its own limitations.
[Footnote 1: Id., pp. 354-356.]
The Attorney General of the State of New Jersey:[1]
attacked the amendment as an invasion of state sovereignty not authorized by the amending clause and as not, properly speaking, an amendment, but legislation, revolutionary in character.
[Footnote 1: 253 U.S., pp. 356-357.]
The eminent Chicago lawyer, Levy Mayer, and ex-Solicitor General WilliamMarshall Bullitt, contended,[1] among other things, that
the power of "amendment" contained in Art. V does not authorize the invasion of the sovereign powers expressly reserved to the states and the people by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, except with the consent ofallthe states….
If amendment under Art. V were unlimited, three-fourths of the legislatures would have it in their power to establish a state religion and prohibit free exercise of other religious beliefs; to quarter a standing army in the houses of citizens; to do away with trial by jury and republican form of government; to repeal the provision for a president; and to abolish this court and with it the whole judicial power vested by the Constitution.
[Footnote 1: Id., pp. 357-361.]
Elihu Root, preëminent as a constitutional lawyer, appeared as counsel in one of the test cases. His main contention was summarized in his brief as follows:[1]
(a) That the authority to amend the Constitution is a continuance of the constitution-making power and as such is a power quite different and altogether distinct from the law-making power under the Constitution.
(b) That a grant of the one power does not include or imply a grant of the other.
(c) That the natural and ordinary meaning of the words used in Article V of the Constitution [the article providing for amendment] limits the power granted to the function of constitution-making as distinguished from ordinary law-making.
(d) That the purposes of the grant imply the same limitation.
(e) That other parts of the Constitution—notably Article I—express the same limitation.
(f) That the existence of authority under Article V to enact ordinary laws regulating the conduct of private citizens under color of amendment, would be so in conflict with the fundamental principles and spirit of the Constitution that such a construction is not permissible.
[Footnote 1: For the Reporter's Summary see 253 U.S., pp. 361-367.]
There were other arguments of a more technical character. Article V of the Constitution provides that the Congress shall propose amendments "whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary." It was urged that this required the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership of both Houses, and that two-thirds of a quorum was not sufficient. It was also urged that the proposal was fatally defective because it did not on its face declare that both Houses deemed the amendment necessary. It was also argued that the amendment had not been effectively ratified in certain of the states where it had been approved by the state legislature (notably Ohio) because under the constitutions of those states it was subject to a referendum to the people before becoming effective. The Supreme Court of Ohio had so decided[1] and a referendum had actually been held in that state, resulting in a rejection of the amendment by popular vote. Various arguments were also advanced based on the puzzling phraseology of Section 2 of the amendment that "the Congress and the several States shall haveconcurrent powerto enforce this article by appropriate legislation." The eminent constitutional lawyer, W.D. Guthrie, addressed himself particularly to this phase of the controversy.[2] It was urged with much force that the effect of these words was to save the rights of the states, in respect of intrastate matters, by requiring their concurrence in any legislation of Congress regulating such matters.
[Footnote 1: SeeHawke v. Smith, 253 U.S., 221.]
[Footnote 2: 253 U.S., pp. 368-380.]
All the arguments advanced were alike unavailing. The nine members of the Supreme Court were unanimous in sustaining the validity of the amendment, holding that it "by lawful proposal and ratification, has become a part of the Constitution, and must be respected and given effect the same as other provisions of that instrument."[1] The Court, however, adopted the very unusual course of deciding the various cases before it (affirming four, reversing one, and dismissing the original bills filed by the states of Rhode Island and New Jersey) without any written opinion. Speaking through Mr. Justice Van Devanter, the Court merely announced its conclusions. This was an unprecedented procedure in a case involving constitutional questions of such importance. It drew criticism from some of the members of the Court itself. Chief Justice White said:[2]
I profoundly regret that in a case of this magnitude, affecting as it does an amendment to the Constitution dealing with the powers and duties of the national and state governments, and intimately concerning the welfare of the whole people, the court has deemed it proper to state only ultimate conclusions without an exposition of the reasoning by which they have been reached.
and proceeded to announce the reasons which had actuated him personally. Justice McKenna said:[3]
The court declares conclusions only, without giving any reasons for them. The instance may be wise—establishing a precedent now, hereafter wisely to be imitated. It will undoubtedly decrease the literature of the court if it does not increase lucidity.
[Footnote 1: Id., p. 386.]
[Footnote 2: Id., p. 388.]
[Footnote 3: 253 U.S., p. 393.]
Perhaps a hint as to the reasons actuating the majority of the Court may be found in the brief concurring memorandum of Mr. Justice McReynolds. He said:[1]
I do not dissent from the disposition of these causes as ordered by the Court, but confine my concurrence to that. It is impossible now to say with fair certainty what construction should be given to the Eighteenth Amendment. Because of the bewilderment which it creates, a multitude of questions will inevitably arise and demand solution here. In the circumstances, I prefer to remain free to consider these questions when they arrive.
[Footnote 1: Id., p. 392.]
Justices McKenna and Clarke dissented from portions of the decision dealing with the question of the proper construction of the grant of "concurrent power" to Congress and the States, and wrote opinions setting forth the grounds of their dissent. Both Justices, however, concurred in affirming the validity of the amendment.
Thus the legal battle was fought and lost. The amendment had withstood attack and men's minds settled back to the practical question of its enforcement.
Upon that question, however difficult and interesting, we do not here enter. Our present concern is to ascertain as nearly as may be the true place of the amendment in the development of American constitutional law.
That it affords startling evidence of a radical departure from the views of the founders of the Republic is beyond question. Such a blow at the prerogatives of the states, such a step toward centralization, would have been thought impossible by the men of 1787. It would be a mistake, however, to view the departure as having originated with this amendment. Rather is the amendment to be regarded as merely a spectacular manifestation of a change which was already well under way.
In the early days of the Republic the dominating purpose was the protection of state prerogatives, so far as that was compatible with the common safety. The first eleven amendments of the Federal Constitution were all limitations upon federal power. Not until the people of the various states had been drawn together and taught to think in terms of the nation by a great Civil War was there any amendment which enlarged the powers of the National Government. The three post-war amendments (Nos. XIII, XIV, and XV) marked a distinct expansion of federal power but one that seemed to find its justification, as it found its origin, in the necessity for effectuating the purposes of the war and protecting the newly enfranchised Negroes.
A long period of seeming inactivity, more than forty years, elapsed before another constitutional amendment was adopted.[1] The inaction, however, was apparent rather than real. As matter of fact, a change was all the time going on. In a very real sense the Constitution was being altered almost from year to year. That the alterations did not take the shape of formal written amendments was largely due to the tradition of constitutional immobility. The idea had grown up that the machinery of amendment provided by the Fathers was so slow and cumbersome that it was impossible as a practical matter to secure a change by that method except under stress of war or great popular excitement. That idea is now exploded. We of to-day know better, having seen the Income Tax Amendment (No. XVI), the Election of Senators by Popular Vote Amendment (No. XVII), the Prohibition Amendment (No. XVIII), and the Woman Suffrage Amendment (No. XIX) go through within a period of seven years. For generations, however, the tradition of constitutional immobility held sway and the forces of change worked through channels that seemed easier and less obstructed.
[Footnote 1: No. XVI, the Income Tax Amendment, ratified in 1913.]
The principal channel has been congressional legislation. Congress has found ways of reaching by indirection objects which could not be approached directly. Under the express grants of power contained in the Constitution statutes have been enacted which were really designed to accomplish some ulterior object. A striking example is found in the child labor laws, discussed more at length in a subsequent chapter. Congress at first sought to regulate child labor by a statute enacted ostensibly as a regulation of commerce under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court held the Act unconstitutional as exceeding the commerce power of Congress and invading the powers reserved to the states.[1] Thereupon Congress practically reënacted it, coupled with a provision for a prohibitive tax on the profits of concerns employing child labor, as part of a revenue act enacted under the constitutional grant of power to lay taxes.[2]
[Footnote 1:Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S., 251.]
[Footnote 2: Revenue Act of 1918, Title XII.]
The assumption by the National Government of jurisdiction over the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors is no more of an encroachment on the prerogatives of the states than is its assumption of jurisdiction over child labor and the use of narcotic drugs. We come back, therefore, to the proposition that the Prohibition Amendment is to be regarded less as a departure in American fundamental law than as a spectacular manifestation of a change already well under way.
The change, however much students of our institutions may deplore it, is not difficult to explain. The earlier solicitude for state rights was in a sense accidental. It was based on sentiment and mutual jealousies among the colonies rather than on any fundamental differences in race, beliefs, or material interests. The traditions behind it, while strong, were of comparatively recent growth. When they entered the Union the colonies were still new and undeveloped. As men died and their sons succeeded them prejudices gradually yielded and sentiment changed. Moreover, various other forces—immigration, free trade among the states, the growth of railways and other nationwide industries, foreign wars—have been at work to obliterate state lines.
Advocates of the old order see in the change a breaking down of the principle of local self-government. To their minds the danger of majority tyranny, made possible by a centralization of power in a republic of such vast extent and varied interests, outweighs all the advantages of national uniformity and efficiency. Advocates of the new order think otherwise. They argue, moreover, that the states have become too great and populous to serve as units for purposes of home rule; that their boundaries are for the most part artificial and correspond to no real distinctions in the ordinary life of men. They assert that the instinct for local self-government remains as strong as it ever was, and instance the resentment of New York City over interference from Albany.
The average man gives little thought to the constitutional aspect of the controversy. His interest in the prohibition movement is focused on other features which seem to him of more immediate concern. And yet, did he but realize it, the constitutional aspect transcends all the others in its importance for the future welfare and happiness of himself, his children, and his country.