Opinion of the Court.

and canceled, as is in this act provided, to each of said bills of lading, manifests or other memorandum, and to each duplicate thereof, a stamp of the value of one cent."

And this proviso at the end of the schedule:

"Provided, That the stamp duties imposed by the foregoing schedule on manifests, bills of lading and passage tickets shall not apply to steamboats or other vessels plying between ports of the United States and ports in British North America.”

Mr. C. W. Bunn for plaintiff in error. Mr. George A. King and Mr. William B. King filed a brief on behalf of plaintiff in error.

Mr. Solicitor General for the United States.

MR. JUSTICE BREWER, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

The constitutionality of an act of Congress is a matter always requiring the most careful consideration. The presumptions are in favor of constitutionality, and before a court is justified in holding that the legislative power has been exercised beyond the limits granted, or in conflict with restrictions imposed by the fundamental law, the excess or conflict should be clear. And yet, when clear, if written constitutions are to be regarded as of value, the duty of the court is plain to uphold the Constitution, although in so doing the legislative enactment falls. The reasoning in support of this was in the early history of this court forcibly declared by Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 137, 177, and nothing can be said to add to the strength of his reasoning. His language is worthy of quotation :

"The Constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.

"If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law; if the latter

Opinion of the Court.

part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.

"Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and, consequently, the theory of every such government must be that an act of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void.

"This theory is essentially attached to a written constitution and is consequently to be considered, by this court, as one of the fundamental principles of our society.

"It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each.

"So if a law be in opposition to the Constitution; if both the law and the Constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the Constitution, or conformably to the Constitution, disregarding the law, the court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty.

"If, then, the courts are to regard the Constitution, and the Constitution is superior to any ordinary act of the legislature, the Constitution, and not such ordinary act, must govern the case to which they both apply.

"The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts as well as other departments are bound by that instrument."

This judicial duty of upholding the provisions of the Constitution as against any legislation conflicting therewith has become now an accepted fact in the judicial life of this nation. That in the enforcement of this rule the decisions, national and State, are not all in harmony is not strange. Conflicts

Opinion of the Court.

between constitutions and statutes have been easily found by some courts. It has been said, and not inappropriately, that in certain States the courts have been strenuous as to the letter of the state constitution and have enforced compliance with it under circumstances in which a full recognition of the spirit of the constitution and the general power of legislation would have justified a different conclusion. We do not care to enter into any discussion of these varied decisions. We proceed upon the rule often expressed in this court that an act of Congress is to be accepted as constitutional unless on examination it clearly appears to be in conflict with provisions of the Federal Constitution.

In the light of this rule the inquiry naturally is upon what principles and in what spirit should the provisions of the Federal Constitution be construed? There are in that instrument grants of power, prohibitions and a general reservation of ungranted powers. That in the grant of powers there was no purpose to bind governmental action by the restrictive force of a code of criminal procedure has been again and again asserted. The words expressing the various grants in the Constitution are words of general import, and they are to be construed as such, and as granting to the full extent the powers named. Further, by the last clause of sec. 8, art. 1, Congress is authorized "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." This construed on the same principles vests in Congress a wide range of discretion as to the means by which the powers granted are to be carried into execution. This matter was at an early day presented to this court, and it was affirmed that there could be no narrow and technical limitation or construction; that the instrument should be taken as a constitution. In the course of the opinion the Chief Justice said:

"The subject is the execution of those great powers on which the welfare of a nation essentially depends. It must have been the intention of those who gave these powers to insure, as far as human prudence could insure, their beneficial execution.

Opinion of the Court.

This could not be done by confining the choice of means to such narrow limits as not to leave it in the power of Congress to adopt any which might be appropriate, and which were conducive to the end. This provision is made in a Constitution intended to endure for ages to come, and, consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs. To have prescribed the means by which government should, in all future time, execute its powers, would have been to change, entirely, the character of the instrument, and give it the properties of a legal code. It would have been an unwise attempt to provide, by immutable rules, for exigencies which, if foreseen at all, must have been seen dimly, and which can be best provided for as they occur. To have declared that the best means shall not be used, but those alone without which the power given would be nugatory, would have been to deprive the legislature of the capacity to avail itself of experience, to exercise its reason, and to accommodate its legislation to circumstances." M'Culloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 415.

And thereafter, in language which has become axiomatic in constitutional construction (p. 421)—

"We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion, with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution, which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it, in the manner most beneficial to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional."

It is true that in that and other kindred cases the question was as to the scope and extent of the powers granted, and the language quoted must be taken as appropriate to that question and as stating the rule by which the grants of the Constitution should be construed.

We are not here confronted with a question of the extent of the powers of Congress but one of the limitations imposed by

Opinion of the Court.

the Constitution on its action, and it seems to us clear that the same rule and spirit of construction must also be recognized. If powers granted are to be taken as broadly granted and as carrying with them authority to pass those acts which may be reasonably necessary to carry them into full execution; in other words, if the Constitution in its grant of powers is to be so construed that Congress shall be able to carry into full effect the powers granted, it is equally imperative that where prohibition or limitation is placed upon the power of Congress that prohibition or limitation should be enforced in its spirit and to its entirety. It would be a strange rule of construction that language granting powers is to be liberally construed and that language of restriction is to be narrowly and technically construed. Especially is this true when in respect to grants of powers there is as heretofore noticed the help found in the last clause of the eighth section, and no such helping clause in respect to prohibitions and limitations. The true spirit of constitutional interpretation in both directions is to give full, liberal construction to the language, aiming ever to show fidelity to the spirit and purpose.

With this rule in mind we pass to a consideration of the precise question presented. The constitutional provision is "no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State." The statute challenged imposes on "bills of lading for any goods, merchandise, or effects, to be exported from any port or place in the United States to any foreign port or place, ten cents." The contention on the part of the Government is that no tax or duty is placed upon the article exported; that so far as the question is in respect to what may be exported and how it should be exported, the statute, following the Constitution, imposes no restriction; that the full scope of the legislation is to impose a stamp duty on a document not necessarily though ordinarily used in connection with the exportation of goods; that it is a mere stamp imposition on an instrument, and, similar to many such taxes which are imposed by Congress by virtue of its general power of taxation, not upon this alone, but upon a great variety of instruments used in the ordinary transactions of busiOn the other hand, it is insisted that though Congress by

ness.

VOL CLXXXI-19