390 BURR— THE TREATY-MAKING POWER [April 20, 



that the national government may prevent any unlawful and forcible inter- 

 ference therewith. But how shall this be accomplished? Doubtless, it is 

 within the competency of Congress to prescribe by legislation that any inter- 

 ference with these matters shall be offenses against the United States, and 

 prosecuted and punished by indictment in the proper courts. But is that the 

 only remedy? Have the vast interests of the nation in interstate commerce, 

 and in the transportation of the mails, no other protection than lies in the 

 possible punishment of those who interfere with it? . . . There is no such 

 impotency in the national government. The entire strength of the nation 

 may be used to enforce in any part of the land the full and free exercise of 

 all national powers and the security of all rights entrusted by the Constitu- 

 tion to its care. The strong arm of the national government may be put 

 forth to brush away all obstructions to the freedom of interstate commerce 

 or the transportation of the mails. If the emergency arises, the army of the 

 nation, and all its militia, are at the service of the nation to compel obedience 

 to its laws. 



" But passing to the second question, is there no other alternative than 

 the use of force on the part of the executive authorities whenever obstruc- 

 tions arise to the freedom of interstate commerce within or the transporta- 

 tion of the mails? Is the army the only instrument by which rights of the 

 police can be enforced and the peace of the nation preserved? . . . The right 

 to use force does not exclude the right of appeal to the Courts for a judicial 

 determination and for the exercise of all their powers of prevention. Indeed, 

 it is more to the praise than to the blame of the government, that, instead of 

 determining for itself questions of right and wrong on the part of these 

 petitioners and their associates and enforcing that determination by the club 

 of the policeman and the bayonet of the soldier, it submitted all those ques- 

 tions to the peaceful determination of judicial tribunals, and invoked their 

 consideration and judgment as to the measure of its rights and powers and 

 correlative obligations of those against whom it made complaint."'"" 



The Court thus conckides : 



" Summing up our conclusions, we hold that the government of the 

 United States is one having jurisdiction over every foot of soil within its 

 territory, and acting directly upon each citizen ; that while it is a government 

 of enumerated powers, it has within the limits of those powers all the attri- 

 butes of sovereignty."'"' 



If therefore the Federal government has the power to act by its 

 army, by its courts, criminal and civil, " directly upon each citizen " 

 " over every foot of soil within this territory," under the grant to 

 regulate interstate commerce and the transmission of the mail, can 

 it be that the powers of that same Federal government are less whan 



^^ 158 U. S., pp. 581, 582, 583. 

 =^ Ibid., p. 599- 



