Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 2.djvu/290

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272

HARVARD LA W REVIEW,

counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States ; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations ; to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, includ- ing the militia ; to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what- soever over the District of Columbia, the forts, dockyards, etc., of the United States.^ Congress has also full and complete legisla- tive power over the Territories, subject at least only to the limita- tions imposed upon the General Government by the Constitution. " All territory within the jurisdiction of the United States, not included in any State, must necessarily be governed by or under the authority of Congress." ^ Congress has the same ample power over the Indian tribes upon their reservations, even when the reser- vations are within a State.® To the United States Government was also granted, by necessary implication, police power to the extent "necessary and proper for carrying into execution*** all the powers vested in the General Government by the Constitution ; for example, power to enact police regulations to protect the mails, to prevent evasion of the revenue laws, for the protection of pat- ents, or for the regulation of commerce. All the rest of the police power incident to sovereignty, subject only to the limitations of the United States and State Constitutions, is vested in the States.* Therefore, an act of Congress making it a misdemeanor to sell for illuminating purposes oil made of petroleum, inflammable at a less temperature or fire-test than i io° Fahrenheit, " can only have effect where the legislative authority of Congress excludes terri- torially all State legislation ; as, for example, in the District of Columbia. Within State limits it can have no constitutional oper- ation."® Yet a similar law by a State is valid, even against a ven- dor who manufactured the oil in question under letters-patent granted by the United States.^ An act of Congress, not confined in its operation to foreign and interstate commerce, punishing the

��* Const., art. i., sect. 8.

2 National Bank v. County of Yankton, loi U. S. 129, 133 (1879); Murphy v, Ram- say, 114 U.S. 15, 44(1884). 8 U. S. V, Kagama, 118 U. S. 375 (1886). ^ Const, art. i., sect. 8, last clause. ^ U. S. Const., loth amendment. » U. S. r. Dewitt, 9 Wall. 41, 45 (1869). ' Patterson v, Kentucky, 97 U. S. 501 (1878).