[274] California v. Pacific Railroad Co., 127 U. S. 1 (1888). Cases involving these points will be treated in a later chapter on “The Extension of Federal Control over Postroads.”
[275] Ex parte Jackson, 96 U. S. 727 (1878).
[276] “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” An executive order, deriving its validity from an act of Congress would, of course, be illegal if abridging the liberty of the press, even though the act itself did not.
[277] Von Holst, Constitutional History of the United States, vol. ii, p. 127.
[278] The Origin and Growth of the American Constitution, p. 230.
[279] Lewis Publishing Co. v. Morgan, 229 U. S. 288 (1913).
[280] Farrand, vol. ii, pp. 334, 341.
[281] Ibid., pp. 617, 618; in Pinckney’s plan there was a limitation upon Congress to preserve the freedom of the press. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 599, 609. A motion was made in the convention to appoint a committee to prepare a bill of rights and was unanimously rejected. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 582.
[282] Farrand, vol. iii, 256; Elliot’s Debates, vol. iv, pp. 315, 316. Mr. Pinckney obviously overlooked the possibility that the freedom of the press might incidentally be limited through the exercise by Congress of one of its delegated powers, a possibility which became stronger when the doctrine of implied powers was developed. Particularly was this true in reference to postoffice regulations.
[283] The Federalist, No. 84. In a footnote Hamilton scouts the idea that the liberty of the press may be affected by duties on publications which might be “so high as to amount to a prohibition.... We know that newspapers are taxed in Great Britain, and yet it is notorious that the press nowhere enjoys greater liberty than in that country.” The extent of duties, if levied, “must depend on legislative discretion, regulated by public opinion.... It would be quite as significant to declare that the government ought to be free, that taxes ought not to be excessive, etc., as that the liberty of the press ought not to be restrained.” Newspapers were in fact taxed during the Civil War, and revenue to the amount of $980,089 was raised by this means. Lalor, Encyclopaedia of Political Science, (Art., “Press”), vol. iii, 321.