CH. XXXV.]
PROHIBITIONS—TONNAGE DUTIES.
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is at best a very loose, and unsatisfactory exposition, leaving the whole matter open to the most latitudinarian construction. What are subjects of great national magnitude and importance? Why may not a compact, or agreement between states, be perpetual? If it may not, what shall be its duration? Are not treaties often made for short periods, and upon questions of local interest, and for temporary objects?[1]
§ 1397. Perhaps the language of the former clause may be more plausibly interpreted from the terms used, "treaty, alliance, or confederation," and upon the ground, that the sense of each is best known by its association (noscitur a sociis) to apply to treaties of a political character; such as treaties of alliance for purposes of peace and war; and treaties of confederation, in which the parties are leagued for mutual government, political cooperation, and the exercise of political sovereignty; and treaties of cession of sovereignty, or conferring internal political jurisdiction, or external political dependence, or general commercial privileges.[2] The latter clause, "compacts and agreements," might then very properly apply to such, as regarded what might- ↑ The corresponding article of the confederation did not present exactly the same embarrassments in its construction. One clause was, "No state, without the consent of the United States, in congress assembled, shall enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with any king, prince, or state"; and "No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States, &c.; specifying accurately the purposes, for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue." Taking both clauses, it is manifest, that the former refers exclusively to foreign states, or nations; and the latter to the states of the Union.
- ↑ In this view, one might be almost tempted to conjecture, that the original reading was "treaties of alliance, or confederation;" if the corresponding article of the confederation (art. 6) did not repel it.
