[Footnote 3: 109 U.S., 3.]

These are but a few of the many decisions of the Supreme Court in the
reconstruction period upholding the rights of the states against
attempted federal encroachment arising from the conditions of the Civil
War. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the men who composed the
Court at this time for their courage and firmness in the face of popular
clamor and passion.

The solicitude of the Court for the rights of the states did not end
with the reconstruction period. It has continued down to the present
day. In the Income Tax cases[1] the Court held that a tax upon income
from bonds of a state municipal corporation was repugnant to the
Constitution as a tax upon the borrowing power of the state.

[Footnote 1: _Pollock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Co._, 157 U.S., 429
(1895).]

In _Keller v. United States_[1] the Court declared unconstitutional, as
an encroachment on the police power of the states, an act of Congress
making it a felony to harbor alien prostitutes, the Court declaring that
"speaking generally, the police power is reserved to the states and
there is no grant thereof to Congress in the Constitution."

[Footnote 1: 213 U.S., 138 (1909).]

In the Child Labor case[1] the Court held the federal Child Labor Law
of 1916 unconstitutional as invading the police power reserved to the
states. The Court said: