Speech #460024104

I agree with all that he has said as to that authority. But I ask him whether the decisions of the Sopresno Court of this country. from the beginning down to the present time. do not hold that that power of Congress is absolute and exclusive. that the States have no authority to make regulations in regard to commerce? And have not the legislative provisions of my own State in regard to the importation of liquors. and of the State of Maryland. and of New York in regard to head money imposed upon immigrants. all been declared by the courts to be illegal and void because the right to make regulations as to commerce is exclusively and absolutely within the domain of Congress? Has not Congress. in this statute to which I have referred. recognized the fact that it is for the States to make these quarantine laws V And do not the decisions to which I have referred. all down through their course. bear the statement upon almost every page that these quarantine laws ard regulations are police matters. to be attended to by the States and not by the General Government? In the passenger cases. those cases which were decided after such elaborate argument. and in which the nine judges of the Supreme Court gave separate opinions. five of them holding that the power of Congress to regulate commerce was absolute and exclusive. the opinion of the court was to the following effect: That the States of this Union may. in the exercise of their police powers. pass quarantine and health laws. interdicting vessels coming ifrom foreign ports. or ports within the United States. from landin. passengers ant goods. prescribe the places and time for vessels to quarantine. animpose penalties upon persons for violating the same. and that such laws. though affecting commerce in its transit. are not regulations of commerce presesibing terms upon which merchandise and persons shall be admitted into the ports of the United States. but precautionary regulations to provent vessels engaged in commerce froln introd acing disease into the ports to which they ere bound. and that the States may. in the exorcise of suh police pioser. without iny violatiou of the power in Congress to reglate commerce exact from the owner or consignee of a quarantined vessel. and from the passengers on hoard of her. such fees as will pay to the State the cost of their detention and of the purification of the vessel. cargo. and apparel of the persons on hoard.