ANNUAL EXHIBITION—ADDRESSES. 
145 
did own one. That requires legislative sanction. The pro¬ 
ducer is therefore in the power of the capitalist, as to transpor¬ 
tation ; and unless the law can restrain or limit his demands, 
oppression may and will be practiced. And, until within two 
or three years, the power of the legislature to control railroads, 
as public highways, has universally been conceded. But the 
new doctrine now contended for, that a railroad is private and 
not public property, strikes a death blow at all legislative con¬ 
trol, and leaves the people at the mercy of our corporations, so 
far as the state government is concerned. The state can con¬ 
trol the management of public property, but has no right to 
control the use of mere private ^property. 
If the state of things now existing is an evil, and the tenden¬ 
cy is to an aggravation of that evil, it is interesting to consider 
whether any, and what, remedy can be invoked. 
It is evident that a corporation which owns a railroad 
through half a dozen states, cannot be controlled by any one 
state, and if every state should enter upon the task, it is cer¬ 
tain that each would have a theory of its own, and nothing but 
confusion would result. A regulation to be of any avail must 
be uniform ; there can be no uniformity where thirty sover¬ 
eignties are uttering their voices and enforcing their wills upon 
the same subject. This consideration led to the adoption, in 
the constitution of the United States, of the provision that 
congress should have power “ to regulate commerce with for¬ 
eign nations, a7id among the several states, and with the Indian 
tribes.” Art. 1, sec. 7. 
Commerce, in the general sense is defined to be “ an inter¬ 
change or mutual change, of goods, wares, productions, or 
property of any kind, between nations, or individuals, either 
by barter, or by purchase and sale; and includes the transpor¬ 
tation of persons as well as of merchandize.” Every railroad 
company employed in moving merchandize or transporting 
persons from one state to another, or from one state through 
one or more states, is engaged in commerce “ among the sev¬ 
eral states,” as much as the owner and master of a ship sail¬ 
ing from New York to Liverpool, is engaged in foreign com- 
Ag. Tr.—10. 
