COMMEKCIAL INTERCOURSE 



COMONFORT, YGNACIO 



north of Duck river ; so much of Hamilton as lies 

 north and west of Tennessee river; Sequatchie, Knox, 

 DeKalb, Bay, Meigs, McMinn, Rome, Blunt, Sevier, 

 Jefferson, Cocke, Greer, Washington, Carter, Johnson, 

 Sullivan, Hawkins, Hancock, Claiborne, Union, Camp- 

 bell, Anderson, Morgan, Fentress, Van Buren, Wynn 

 and Hardin counties. 



XXV. After the first fee of fifty cents shall be paid 

 by a boat for a trip clearance, no more than twenty- 

 five cents shall be charged under section XXIX. of the 

 Regulations, for any renewal thereof upon the same 

 trip. 



XXVI. Of the two months' supplies to be permitted 

 to sutlers under Regulation XIv ., only one month of 

 such supplies shall be on account of arrearages ; and 

 no Post, Division, or Battery Sutler shall be recog- 

 nized by any surveyor or Customs or other officer of 

 the Treasury Department. 



XXVII. Officers will in all cases attach to permits 

 issued by them either the original invoices of the mer- 

 chandise, or certified copies thereof (except the item 

 extension), each one of which shall be officially stamped 

 or countersigned by them. 



XXVIII. These rules shall take effect immediately ; 

 but every authority to purchase products issued prior 

 to January 5th, 1864, snail be conditioned that no pur- 

 chase be made under it until after that date, and no 

 boat shall be cleared below Helena under Rule XXIII., 

 before that time. 



XXIX. Blank applications, affidavits, and bonds for 

 Trade Stores, and authority to purchase the property 

 of insurrectionary districts, will be furnished to any 

 Surveyor applying for them at the office of the Agency 

 in Cincinnati, which blanks will be prepared by such 

 Surveyor for applicants thereof, and the certificate of 

 the Surveyor as to the sufficiency of the sureties upon 

 the bond shall be satisfactory to any Assistant Special 

 Agent, to whom the same shall be presented for the 

 desired authority. 



In May a decision was given by Chief Justice 

 Taney on a case which arose in Baltimore un- 

 der regulations previously prescribed for trade 

 in Maryland. One Carpenter neglected or re- 

 fused to obtain the permit required, and his 

 goods were seized. The case was carried to 

 the United States Court, and Chief Justice Ta- 

 ney decided as follows : 



But if these regulations had been made directly by 

 Congress they could not be sustained by a court of 

 justice, whose duty it is to administer the law accord- 

 ing to the Constitution of the United States. For from 

 the commencement of the Government to this day it 

 has been admitted on all bands, and repeatedly deci- 

 ded by the Supreme Court, that the United States 

 have no right to interfere with the internal and do- 

 mestic trade of a State. They have no right to com- 

 pel it to pass through their custom houses, nor to tax 

 it. This is so plainly set forth in the Constitution that 

 it has never been supposed to be open to controversy 

 or question. Undoubtedly the United States authori- 

 ties may take proper measures to prevent trade or in- 

 tercourse with the enemy. But it does not by any 

 means follow that they disregard the limits of all their 

 own powers as prescribed by the Constitution, or the 

 rights and powers reserved to the States and the peo- 

 ple. 



A civil war, or any other, does not enlarge the 

 powers of the Federal Government over the States or 

 the people, beyond what the compact has given to it 

 in time of war. A state of war does not annul the 10th 

 article of the amendment to the Constitution, which 

 declares that " the powers not delegated to the United 

 States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 

 States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 

 people." Nor does a civil war, or any other war, ab- 

 solve the judicial department from the duty of main- 

 taining, with an even and linn hand, the rights and 

 powers of the Federal Government and of the States 



and of the citizens as they are written in the Constitu- 

 tion, which every judge is sworn to support. Upon 

 the whole, the Court is of opinion that the regulations 

 in question are illegal and void, and that the seizure of 

 the goods of Carpenter, because he refused to comply 

 with them, cannot be sustained. The judgment of the 

 District Court must, therefore, be reversed and the 

 goods delivere*d to the claimant, his agent or proctor. 



COMONFORT, YGXACIO, a Mexican states- 

 man, born in the city of Puebla, March 12th, 

 1812, was murdered, Nov. 18th, 1863. He en- 

 tered the Jesuit College in his native city in 

 1826, became a captain of cavalry in 1832, and 

 soon after began to take an active part in pol- 

 itics, attaching himself to the liberal party, of 

 which, from that time, he continued a leader. 

 In 1834 he was made prefect and military gov- 

 ernor of the district of Tlapa, and in 1842 he 

 was elected member of the National Congress, 

 which was soon dissolved by Santa Anna. In 

 1846 he was reflected to Congress, but this 

 Congress was again dissolved, and a revolu- 

 tion followed in which Comonfort took a con- 

 spicuous part. On the return of Santa Anna 

 to power, in 1853, Comonfort was at once dis- 

 missed from office. In conjunction with Al- 

 varez he raised the standard of revolution; 

 proclaimed the peace of Ayutla, on the llth of 

 March ; and compelled Santa Anna to retreat 

 from Ayutla ; and, having obtained from his 

 friends in New York, where he made a flying 

 visit, the necessary funds to carry on the war, 

 he returned, and drove the Dictator from Mex- 

 ico, in 1855. Alvarez assumed the supreme 

 government on Santa Anna's abdication, but 

 soon wearying of political cares, delegated his 

 authority to Comonfort, who became provisional 

 president of Mexico, Dec. llth, 1855. He soon, 

 however, found himself strongly opposed by 

 the conservative party, which comprised in its 

 ranks the clergy, a part of the army, and the 

 citizens who were unde'r the influence of the 

 clergy. The Junta of Zacapoastla first issued 

 a pronunciamento, on the 19th of Dec., and 

 the conservatives soon marched on Puebla, 

 where they assembled a force variously esti- 

 mated at from 5,000 to 15,000 men, in Feb. 1856. 

 Comonfort promptly marched against them 

 with a force of 12,000, consisting of the Nation- 

 al Guard and that portion of the army which 

 had remained faithful to him, and, on the 20th 

 of March, compelled them to surrender. On 

 the 31st of March he issued a decree ordering 

 the confiscation of the church property, and 

 followed it on the 28th of June by another, 

 forbidding the clergy to hold landed estate. 

 The church party were at once arrayed against 

 him, and a conflict of great bitterness ensued. 

 Revolts, inspired by this party, broke out in 

 different portions of the republic, but were 

 soon suppressed by his vigorous movements. 

 In March, 1857, the Congress of the Republic 

 at Mexico promulgated a new constitution, 

 vesting the legislative power and the control 

 over religious and military affairs solely in 

 Congress. The president, finding it impossible 

 to govern the country, agitated as it was by 



