Secondly. There is also the power “to establish post-roads,” which is equally explicit. Here, too, the words are plain, and they have received authoritative exposition. It is with reference to these words that Mr. Justice Story remarks that “constitutions of government do not turn upon ingenious subtleties, but are adapted to the business and exigencies of human society; and the powers given are understood in a large sense, in order to secure the public interests. Common sense becomes the guide, and prevents men from dealing with mere logical abstractions.”[74] The same learned authority, in considering the text of the Constitution, seems to have anticipated the very question before us. Here is a passage which may fitly close the argument on this head:—
“Let a case be taken when State policy”—
as, for instance, in New Jersey at this time,—
“or State hostility shall lead the Legislature to close up or discontinue a road, the nearest and the best between two great States, rivals, perhaps, for the trade and intercourse of a third State; shall it be said that Congress has no right to make or repair a road for keeping open for the mail the best means of communication between those States? May the National Government be compelled to take the most inconvenient and indirect routes for the mail? In other words, have the States a power to say how and upon what roads the mails shall and shall not travel? If so, then, in relation to post-roads, the States, and not the Union, are supreme.”[75]
Thirdly. Then comes the power “to raise and support armies,”—an unquestionable power lodged in Congress. But this grant carries with it, of course, all incidental powers necessary to the execution of the principal power. It would be absurd to suppose that Congress was empowered to raise an army, but could not authorize the agencies required for its transportation from place to place. Congress has not been guilty of any such absurdity of abnegation. Already by formal Act it has proceeded “to authorize the President of the United States in certain cases to take possession of railroad and telegraph lines.” By this Act the President is empowered “to take possession of any or all the railroad lines in the United States, their rolling stock, their offices, shops, buildings, and all their appendages and appurtenances,” and it is declared that any such railroad “shall be considered as a post-road and a part of the military establishment of the United States.”[76] Here is the exercise of a broader power than any now proposed. The less must be contained in the greater.
Such are the three sources of power in the Constitution, each and all applicable to the present case. Each is indisputable. Therefore the conclusion, sustained by each, is threefold indisputable.
So plain is this power, that it has been admitted by New Jersey in a legislative act, as follows:—
“That, when any other rail road or roads for the transportation of passengers and property between New York and Philadelphia across this State shall be constructed and used for that purpose, under or by virtue of any law of this State or the United States authorizing or recognizing said road, that then and in that case the said dividends shall be no longer payable to the State, and the said stock shall be re-transferred to the Company by the Treasurer of this State.”[77]