Gibbons v. Ogden · ¶19

When Congress imposed that embargo which, fora time, engaged the attention of every man- is the United Statés, the avowed object bf the law. was, the protection of commerce, and the avoiding of war. By its friends and its enemies it was treatéd as a commercial, not as a war measure, The persevering earnestness, and zeal with which it was opposed, in a part of. our countrywhieh supposed its. interests to be vitally affected by the act, cannot be forgotten. A want of acuteness in discovering objections to a measure to. which they ferlt the most deep rooted hostility, will not bé imputed to those who were arrayed in opposition to this. Yet they never suspected that navigation was no branch of trade, and was, therefore, not comprehended in the power to regulate commerce,; They did, indeed, contest the constitutionality of the act, but, on a. principle which admits the construction for which…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 22, at 1 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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