Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/518

§ 1061. This power the constitution extends to commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes. In regard to foreign nations, it is universally admitted, that the words comprehend every species of commercial intercourse. No sort of trade or intercourse can be carried on between this country and another, to which it does not extend. Commerce, as used in the constitution, is a unit, every part of which is indicated by the term. If this be its admitted meaning in its application to foreign nations, it must carry the same meaning throughout the sentence.^[1] The next words are "among the several states." The word "among" means intermingled with. A thing, which is among others, is intermingled with them. Commerce among the states cannot stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the interior. It does not, indeed, comprehend any commerce, which is purely internal, between man and man in a single state, or between different parts of the same state, and not extending to, or affecting other states. Commerce among the states means, commerce, which concerns more states than one. It is not an apt phrase to indicate the mere interior traffic of a single state. The completely internal commerce of a state may be properly considered, as reserved to the state itself.^[2]

§ 1062. The importance of the power of regulating commerce among the states, for the purposes of the

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before the house of commons, in 1766; Dickerson's Farmer's Letters, No. 2, 1767; 1 Jefferson's Corresp. 7; Burke's Speech on American Taxation, 1774.

1. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheaton's R. 194.
2. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheaton's R. 194, 195, 196; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheaton, 446, 447.