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scribe the limits to its freedom, necessarily implies the power to determine what shall remain unrestrained, it follows that the power must be exclusive; it can reside but in one potentate; and hence, the grant of this power carries with it the whole subject, leaving nothing for the State to act upon."

The principles announced in Gibbons v. Ogden were reaffirmed in Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, 446. After expressing doubt whether any of the evils proceeding from the feebleness of the Federal Government contributed more to the establishing of the present constitutional system than the deep and general conviction that commerce ought to be regulated by Congress, Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for the court, said: "It is not, therefore, matter of surprise that the grant should be as extensive as the mischief, and should comprehend all foreign commerce, and all commerce among the States." Considering the question as to the just extent of the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, the court reaffirmed the doctrine that the power was 66 complete in itself, and to acknowledge no limitations other than are prescribed by the Constitution. Commerce is intercourse; one of its most ordinary ingredients is traffic."

In the Passenger Cases, 7 How. 283, the court adjudged certain statutes of New York and Massachusetts, imposing taxes upon alien passengers arriving in the ports of those States, to be in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States. In the separate opinions delivered by the Justices there will not be found any expression of doubt as to the doctrines announced in Gibbons v. Ogden. Mr. Justice McLean said: "Commerce is defined to be an exchange of commodities.' But this definition does not convey the full meaning of the term. It includes navigation and intercourse.' That the transportation of passengers is part of commerce is not now an open question." Mr. Justice Grier said: "Commerce, as defined by this court, means something more than traffic-it is intercourse; and the power committed to Congress to regulate commerce is exercised by prescribing rules for carrying on that intercourse." The same views were expressed by Mr. Justice Wayne, in his separate opinion. He regarded the question then before the

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court as covered by the decision in Gibbons v. Ogden, and in respect to that case he said: "It will always be a high and honorable proof of the eminence of the American bar of that day, and of the talents and distinguished ability of the Judges who were then in the places which we now occupy." Mr. Justice Catron and Mr. Justice McKinley announced substantially the same views.

In Almy v. State of California, 24 How. 169, a statute of California imposing a stamp duty upon bills of lading for gold or silver transported from that State to any port or place out of the State was held to be a tax on exports, in violation of the provision of the Constitution declaring that "no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State." But in Woodruff v. Parham, 8 Wall. 123, 138, this court, referring to the Almy case, said it was well decided upon a ground not mentioned in the opinion of the court, namely, that, although the tax there in question was only on bills of lading, “such a tax was a regulation of commerce, a tax imposed upon the transportation of goods from one State to another, over the high seas, in conflict with that freedom of transit of goods and persons between one State and another, which is within the rule laid down in Crandall v. Nevada, and with the authority of Congress to regulate commerce among the States."

In Henderson &c. v. Mayor &c., 92 U. S. 259, 270, which involved the constitutional validity of a statute of New York relating to vessels bringing passengers to that port, this court, speaking by Mr. Justice Miller, said: "As already indicated; the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, on which the principal reliance is placed to make void the statute of New York, is that which gives to Congress the power 'to regulate commerce with foreign nations.' As was said in United States v. Holliday, 3 Wall. 417, 'commerce with foreign nations means commerce between citizens of the United States and citizens or subjects of foreign governments.' It means trade, and it means intercourse. It means commercial intercourse between nations, and parts of nations, in all its branches. It includes navigation, as the principal means by which foreign intercourse is effected. To regulate this trade and intercourse is

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to prescribe the rules by which it shall be conducted. 'The mind,' says the great Chief Justice, 'can scarcely conceive a system for regulating commerce between nations which shall exclude all laws concerning navigation, which shall be silent on the admission of the vessels of one nation into the ports of another;' and he might have added, with equal force, which prescribed no terms for the admission of their cargo or their passengers. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 190."

The question of the scope of the commerce clause was again considered in Pensacola Tel. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 96 U. S. 1, 9, 12, involving the validity of a statute of Florida, which assumed to confer upon a local telegraph company the exclusive right to establish and maintain lines of electric telegraph in certain counties of Flórida. This court held the act to be unconstitutional. Chief Justice Waite, delivering its judgment, said: "Since the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, it has never been doubted that commercial intercourse is an element of commerce which comes within the regulating power of Congress. Post offices and post roads are established to faciliate the transmission of intelligence. Both commerce and the postal service are placed within the power of Congress, because, being national in their operation, they should be under the protecting care of the National Government. The powers thus granted are not confined to the instrumentalities of commerce, or the postal service known or in use when the Constitution was adopted, but they keep pace with the progress of the country, and adapt themselves to the new developments of time and circumstances. They extend from the horse with its rider to the stage coach, from the sailing vessel to the steamboat, from the coach and the steamboat to the railroad, and from the railroad to the telegraph, as these new agencies are successively brought into use to meet the demands of increasing population and wealth. They were intended for the gov ernment of the business to which they relate, at all times and under all circumstances. As they were entrusted to the General Government for the good of the nation, it is not only the right, but the duty, of Congress to see to it that intercourse among the States and the transmission of intelligence are not

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obstructed or unnecessarily encumbered by state legislation. The electric telegraph marks an epoch in the progress of time. In a little more than a quarter of a century it has changed the habits of business, and become one of the necessities of commerce. It is indispensable as a means of intercommunication, but especially is it so in commercial transactions." In his dissenting opinion in that case Mr. Justice Field speaks of the importance of the telegraph "as a means of intercourse," and of its constant use in commercial transactions.

In County of Mobile v. Kimball, 102 U. S. 691, Mr. Justice Field, delivering the judgment of the court, said: "Commerce with foreign countries and among the States, strictly considered, consists in intercourse and traffic, including in these terms navigation and the transportation and transit of persons and property, as well as the purchase, sale, and exchange of commodities." This principle was expressly reaffirmed in Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, 203.

Applying the doctrine announced in Pensacola Tel. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., it was held in Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U. S. 460, that the law of a State imposing a tax on private telegraph messages sent out of the State was unconstitutional, as being, in effect, a regulation of interstate commerce.

In Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622, 630, it was declared by the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Bradley, that "the power to regulate commerce among the several States is granted to Congress in terms as absolute as is the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations." The same thought was expressed in Bowman v. Chicago &c. Railway Co., 125 U. S. 465, 482; Crutcher v. Kentucky, 141 U. S. 47, 58, and Pittsburg Coal Co. v. Bates, 156 U. S. 577, 587.

In Pickard v. Pullman Southern Car Company, 117 U. S. 34, it was said to be settled by the adjudged cases that to tax "the transit of passengers from foreign countries or between the States, is to regulate commerce."

In Western Union Tel. Co. v. Pendleton, 122 U. S. 347, 356, the court recognized the commerce with foreign countries and among the States which Congress could regulate as including not only the exchange and transportation of commodities, or

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visible, tangible things, but the carriage of persons, and the transmission by telegraph of ideas, wishes, orders and intelligence. See also Ratterman v. Tel. Co., 127 U. S. 411, and Leloup v. Port of Mobile, 127 U. S. 640.

In Covington &c. Bridge Company v. Kentucky, 154 U. S. 204, 218, the question was as to the validity, under the commerce clause of the Constitution, of an act of the Kentucky Legislature relating to tolls to be charged or received for passing over the bridge of the Covington and Cincinnati Bridge Company, a corporation of both Kentucky and Ohio, erected between Covington and Cincinnati. A state enactment prescribing a rate of toll on the bridge was held to be unconstitutional, as an unauthorized regulation of interstate commerce. The court, reaffirming the principles announced in Gloucester Ferry Company v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, and in Wabash &c. Railway Company v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557, said, among other things: "Commerce was defined in Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 189, to be 'intercourse,' and the thousands of people who daily pass and repass over this bridge may be as truly said to be engaged in commerce as if they were shipping cargoes of merchandise from New York to Liverpool. While the bridge company is not itself a common carrier, it affords a highway for such carriage, and a toll upon such bridge is as much a tax upon commerce as a toll upon a turnpike is a tax upon the traffic of such turnpike, or the charges upon a ferry a tax upon the commerce across a river."

At the present term of the court we said that "transportation for others, as an independent business, is commerce, irrespective of the purpose to sell or retain the goods which the owner may entertain with regard to them after they shall have been delivered." Hanley &c. v. Kansas City Southern Railway, 187 U. S. 617.

This reference to prior adjudications could be extended if it were necessary to do so. The cases cited however sufficiently indicate the grounds upon which this court has proceeded when determining the meaning and scope of the commerce clause. They show that commerce among the States embraces navigation, intercourse, communication, traffic, the transit of persons,