172 WRIGHT— LIMITATIONS UPON NATIONAL POWERS, 



CHAPTER VI. 



Limitations upon National Powers : Private Rights and 

 States' Rights. 



44. Nature of Prohibitions. 



Restriction upon the exercise of power by national organs may 

 be expressed in the federal Constitution or implied from the rights 

 guaranteed the states and individuals and the independence guar- 

 anteed the departments of government by the federal Constitution 

 Whether stated in the negative form of a prohibition against the 

 national government or in the positive form of a right or privilege 

 guaranteed the individual, state, or particular organ of government, 

 the eflfect is the same. 



These restrictions fall into three groups, (i) Some are in 

 behalf of the states, as those prohibiting anti-slave-trade laws 

 before 1808 and the freeing of fugitive slaves;^ those prohibiting 

 direct taxes except in proportion to population, export taxes and 

 discriminatory commercial or revenue regulations or tariffs ; ^ 

 those prohibiting the formation of new states within the jurisdiction 

 of existing states or the junction of states without their consent;^ 

 and those implied from the guarantee to the states of territorial 

 integrity, a Republican form of government and immunity of their 

 necessary governmental organs from taxation.* (2) A second class 

 of restrictions is in behalf of the separation of powers as that 

 prohibiting members of the House or Senate from holding any office 

 under the United States,^ that prohibiting appropriations except by 

 " law," ^ and those implied from the privileges expressly guaranteed 

 certain organs or from the separation of the legislative, executive 

 and judicial departments.^ (3) The most numerous prohibitions 

 are in behalf of individual rights and interests. Thus the indi- 

 vidual's supposed interest in democratic government. Puritanic 



1 Constitution. I, sec. 9, cl. i ; IV, sec. 2, cl. 3. 



^ Ibid., I, sec. 9, cl'. 4-6; sec. 8, cl. i. 



^ Ibid., IV, sec. 3, cl. i, 2. 



4 Ibid., IV, sec. 4. See also infra, sec. 48. 



s Ibid., I, sec. 6, cl. 2. 



^ Ibid., I, sec. 9, cl. 7. 



" See infra, sees. 52-55. 



