Section 5. Pooling of Freight and Division of Earnings, Competing Water Carriers Not to be Owned by Railroads, Section 6. Printing, Posting and Filing of Rates and Schedules, Conclusiveness of the Published Rate, Posting of Rates in Railroad Stations, Absence of Filed and Published Rate, Charges to be Included in the Filed and Published Schedules,.. Section 19. Principal Office of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion and Place of Holding Hearings, Section 19a. Physical Valuation of the Property of Common Car- The Carmack Amendment, Liability of the Primary Carrier, Liability of Carrier Measured by Rate Charged for Shipment,.. Liability of Carrier to Suit in Foreign District, .... Section 21. Annual Reports of the Interstate Commerce Commis- Cumulative Remedies and Common Law Rights, Section 23. Jurisdiction of Federal Courts to Issue Writs of Man- The Commerce Clause of the Constitution During the war of the American Revolution the different states of the Union were leagued together in a common cause— that of securing their independence of Great Britain. The central authority was represented in the Articles of Confederation which at best amounted to but little more than a league of friendship. The colonies were extremely averse to subjecting themselves to the exercise of any authority which they feared might become as onerous to them as that from which they had taken up arms to free themselves. The Confederation was in reality more a league than a national government. The Continental Congress was in truth merely a nominal legislature. There was no federal executive, no federal judiciary and there existed no power of enforcing obedience either by states or individuals to the dictates and enactments of the legislature. The common danger from the enemy and the single purpose which animated the states of securing their independence of the mother country alone held them together and induced them to lay aside for the moment the consideration of those deeper questions which at best were but dormant. Mutual interests and common sympathies rather than the power of a central government furnished the cohesive power during the years of armed strife. These conditions changed with the termination of the war and the signature of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Mutual jealousies and the determination to assert and enforce local interests-which had been repressed with difficulty during the previous years-became alarmingly apparent. Immediately the several states began to adopt conflicting and retaliatory trade regulations and restrictions born primarily of jealousies and animosities between the different states. The seaboard states were unwilling to grant to the Confederation the power to raise revenues or assess duties on imports. On the contrary they burdened the commerce of inland states by levying duties on imported goods which were intended for those states which had no seaports. Moreover this lack of power to regulate or control the commerce of the states proved a serious source of embarrassment to the Confederation in its exercise of the treaty making power and served to advertise to the world the inefficiency of the new government. Indeed the very principles which had inspired the war of the Revolution seriously threatened the Confederation of States with anarchy and ruin. The commercial power of the so-called nation was subject to all the diverse municipal laws and regulations of the thirteen several states. Futile efforts were made by Congress to secure from the sev eral states authority to regulate the foreign commerce of the country. Difficulties between the states concerning the regulation of commerce among themselves became increasingly frequent. In particular the dispute growing out of the uncertain jurisdiction in the waters of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, between Maryland and Virginia, became acrimonious. A preliminary meeting of a joint-commission of these two states at Mt. Vernon in 1785 led to a convention at Annapolis the following year in which participated delegates from five states. The commercial situation had grown rapidly more demoralizing and had inspired the gravest concern among the statesmen of the time. They realized that a uniform system of trade regulations was essential to the common interests and permanent harmony of the states and that these could be secured and enforced only through a strong central authority fortified by uniform laws. The demoralization of the four years which succeeded the declaration of peace was proving quite as desolating and quite as destructive to the thirteen states as had the preceding years of war. The appeal for relief from all sides became so insistent that a resolution adopted by Congress recommending the revision of the Articles of Confederation was approved by the various states and in 1787 the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia. It remains then a historical fact that our present Constitution and our system of government had their origin in the perplexities and embarrassments attending the regulation of foreign and interstate commerce during the era of the Confederation. As finally evolved paragraph three, of section eight, of Article one of the Constitution grants to Congress the power “To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." This clause was not one of those provisions of the Constitution which inspired acrimonious debate. To the contrary it met with the approval of all the public men of the day regardless of political and sectional distinctions. In brief, the design of the framers of the Constitution in these few words was to provide uniformity in intercourse with |