Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/225

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PROHIBITIONS ON THE STATES.

§ 1347. The tenth section of the first article (to which we are now to proceed) contains the prohibitions and restrictions upon the authority of the states. Some of these, and especially those, which regard the power of taxation, and the regulation of commerce, have already passed under consideration; and will, therefore, be here omitted. The others will be examined in the order of the text of the constitution.

§ 1348. The first clause is,

No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque or reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.^[1]

§ 1349. The prohibition against treaties, alliances, and confederations, constituted a part of the articles of confederation,^[2] and was from thence transferred in substance into the constitution. The sound policy,

---

1. In the original draft of the constitution, some of these prohibitory clauses were not inserted; and, particularly, the last clause, prohibiting a state to pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts. The former part was inserted by a vote of seven states against three. The latter was inserted in the revised draft of the constitution, and adopted at the close of the convention, whether with, or without opposition, docs not appear.^{[a 1]} It was probably suggested by the clause in the ordinance of 1787, (Art. 2,) which declared, "that no law ought to be made, &c., that shall interfere with, or affect private contracts, or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed."
2. Art. 6.

1. Journal of Convention, p. 227, 302, 359, 377, 379.

vol. iii.28