-- Comment At Your Own Risk --
Good post, Dif. Thanks for the reminder.
As far as the post office goes, I think it was meant to be a full-fledged postal service, with more than just a passing resemblance to what we have today. Communication from person to person is one of the essential things for a Republic. I sometimes wonder that if the telephone, telegraph, and Internet were around in 1787, would they have been included in the government-based infrastructure?
Roger, that's something I really will have to look in to. I can think of things they would have thought were much more important than post offices since people could easily be paid to simply deliver a message. I can't imagine it was supposed to be anything more than standardizing government communication. As it is, that part seems really out of place.
Looking through a few more of your comments...
Reading further into Section 9, there were some more defined limits placed on the taxation power. Impost is a synonym for taxes. What they meant when they said "Uniform" is that you can't tax something less when it arrives in New York than when it arrives in Savannah. It implies that Congress does NOT have the power to favor one part of the country over another.
The only thing mentioned about gold is that the STATES can't make anything money except gold or silver. It didn't say anything about the federal government being limited in that power.
As far as counterfeiting goes, why do you think they call it the SECRET Service? There were a couple counterfeiting incidents at my high school. They were investigated and enforced. The reason you hear about the Gospel tracts is because of the absurdity of the enforcement.
You saw my comment about the post offices. The post roads were established to keep the mail able to move through different parts of the country. Imagine how quickly things would have degenerated if Pennsylvania didn't want to connect its road system to Maryland or Virginia because of the slavery dispute.
As far as subsidizing research, I think that could be excused if it's for the military, like for weapons or even for health, like Walter Reed did for yellow fever. But sponsoring basic research just because? Definitely dicey.
"To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court" means that Congress is authorized to change the system of lower federal courts we have (Magistrates, District Courts, and Courts of Appeals) any way they wish rather than establishing one and only one pattern forever and ever, amen. While there are some "courts" like Tax Court or Social Security Court that aren't properly courts, for the most part, this hasn't been abused. You don't see fifteen gazillion different courts around for each law.
I think you're splitting hairs on war declarations. They can say "You are authorized to fight, with this many soldiers/sailors, ships, &c" but the Constitution also specifies that the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and has the final say so in "how." The Congress seems to have the final say-so in "with what."
The reason for the difference in the Army and Navy is because Navies are a multi-year investment. You build a ship, you expect it to serve for 40 years or more. You have to provide maintenance for that ship over that lifetime. Armies back then were different than they are now. No tanks, no APCs, no helicopters. Men With Guns. They limited it to two years so that the Congress would have to re-authorize the army every session. I think the Air Force should fall under the Navy model.
Making rules for the government of the armed forces is quite different than making day to day decisions. Congress needs to step in only in the most egregious cases to fix things, not try to ram 535 nos
Haloscan HUNGRY!!!
Making rules for the government of the armed forces is quite different than making day to day decisions. Congress needs to step in only in the most egregious cases to fix things, not try to ram 535 noses in the Pentagon doors.
I don't think many people were supposed to live in DC. I can see housing for the President, CongressCritters, and other officials, along with support people. But I don't think there should be room for lobbyist offices, amusement parks, and so forth.
Whew. That was long. Think Haloscan will eat it?
I'm with Roger on the post office being meant to be as it is, a full-service for everybody. See:
http://inventors.about.com/libra...s/
blmailus1.htm
Prior to the government post office, communication was by private messenger on foot or horseback - slow and expensive, not conducive to commerce, especially between states.
Whether technology and private enterprise has rendered the USPS obsolete like the Pony Express and buggy whips is a seperate question.
But there's no doubt the Post Office is one of the few things the Constitution authorized the federal government to do, that it actually does pretty well.
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Awesome post Dif.
"To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;"
Or to punish the minting of other (non-clipped) coinage intended to replace (clipped) US money in personal transactions, apparently. Just ask the Liberty Dollar crowd.
Commenting by HaloScan
