in any department or officer thereof." It is clear that this clause was
intended to be merely an auxiliary to the powers specially enumerated in
the Constitution; and it must, therefore, be so construed as to aid
them, and at the same time to leave the boundaries between the General
Government and the State governments untouched. The argument by which
the Select Committee have endeavored to establish the authority of
Congress over the press is the following: "Congress has power to punish
seditious combinations to resist the laws, and therefore Congress must
have the power to punish false, scandalous, and malicious writings;
because such writings render the Administration odious and contemptible
among the people, and by doing so have a tendency to produce opposition
to the laws." To make it support the construction of the committee, it
should say that "Congress shall have power over all acts which are
likely to produce acts which hinder the execution of," etc. Our
construction confines the power of Congress to such acts as immediately
interfere with the execution of the enumerated powers of Congress,
because the power can only be necessary as well as proper when the acts
would really hinder the execution. The construction of the committee
extends the power of Congress to all acts which have a relation, ever so
many degrees removed, to the enumerated powers, or rather to the acts
which would hinder their execution. By our construction, the
Constitution remains defined and limited, according to the plain intent
and meaning of its framers; by the construction of the committee, all
limitation is lost, and it may be extended over the different actions of
life as speculative politicians may think fit. What has a greater
tendency to fit men for insurrection and resistance to government than
dissolute, immoral habits, at once destroying love of order, and
dissipating the fortune which gives an interest in society? The doctrine
that Congress can punish any act which has a tendency to hinder the
execution of the laws, as well as acts which do hinder it, will,