598. As the States which join each other, are separated merely by a mathematical line, a trading expedition between them cannot commence and terminate without the limits of either; and as other States lie between two States remote from each other, a trading intercourse between the latter, must commence in one, terminate in another, and pass through at least a third. 599. Hence Commerce amongst the States must of necessity be Commerce within the States; and in the regulation of the Indian trade, the action of the Law is chiefly within individual States; whilst in this case, as well as with respect to Commerce amongst the States, the power of Congress being co-extensive with the subject on which it acts, cannot be stopped at the external boundary of the State, but must enter its limits, and be exercised within its territorial jurisdiction. 600. The power of Congress to regulate Commerce among the States, extends to regulating Navigation, and to the coasting trade and fisheries within as well as without any State, wherever they are connected with the Commercial intercourse with any other State, or with foreign Nations. 601. It extends also to the regulation and government of seamen; to conferring privileges upon vessels engaged in the coasting trade; and to the navigation of vessels engaged solely in carrying passengers, as well as of those engaged in traffic, whether propelled by steam or otherwise. 602. The principles upon which a State Law, requiring importers and venders of foreign goods to obtain a licence from the State Government, was declared repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, were held to apply equally to a similar interference with importations from one State to another. 603. Although the power of a State to regulate its purely internal Commerce, and establish its own police to control and promote that trade, and to guard the health and safety of its citizens, are undoubted; yet neither these, nor any other acknowledged State powers, can, consistently with the Federal Constitution, be so used as to obstruct or defeat the power of Congress to regulate Commerce among the States. 604. Nevertheless, if measures within the power of State Legislation do not come into actual collision with the powers of the General Government over navigable streams within a State, the National Courts can take no cognizance of these measures or their effects, where there has been no legislation of Congress, with which the operation of the State Law could interfere. 605. The power of Congress to regulate Commerce with the Indian tribes is to be construed in the same manner; and it extends equally to tribes living within, or without, the boundaries of particular States; or within, or without, the territorial limits of the United States; and the trade with them, in all its forms, is subject exclusively to the regulation of Congress. 606. The Indian territory within the United States composes a part of the Union; and in the intercourse between the General Government and foreign Nations, in commercial regulations, and in any attempt at intercourse between foreign Nations and the Indian inhabitants, they are considered as within the jurisdictional limits of the United States, and subject to many of those restraints which are imposed by the latter on their own citizens. 607. These Indians acknowledge themselves in their Treaties to be under the protection of the United States, and admit that the Government of the Union shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulating the trade with them, and managing all their affairs as it shall think proper. 608. The tribes thus residing within the acknowledged boundaries of the Union, are not deemed foreign Nations within the meaning of the Constitution, but are considered as domestic dependent Nations, occupying a Territory to which the United States assert a title, which must take effect when the right of occupancy of the Indians ceases; and in the mean time, they are in a state of pupilage to the General Government. 609. They are considered by foreign Nations, as well as by the Federal Government, as so completely under the dominion of the United States, that any attempt to form a political connection with them, or to acquire their lands, would be considered as an act of hostility, and an invasion of the Territory of the United States. 610. They are distinguished in the Constitution by an appropriate name from foreign Nations, as well as from the several States composing the Union; and the objects to which the power of regulating Commerce may be directed, are divided into distinct classes, according to that distinction. 611. The principle adopted for determining the respective rights of the Maritime powers of Europe, CHAP. In. REGULATION OF THE INDIAN TRADE. 159 upon their discovery of different parts of the American Continent was, that discovery gave a title to the Government by whose subjects, or by whose authority, it was made, which might be consummated by possession. 612. The admission of this principle gave to the Nation making a discovery, the sole right of acquiring the soil, and of making settlements upon it; and whilst the principle itself shut out the right of competition amongst those who agreed to it, it could not annul the previous rights of those who were not parties to its adoption. 613. It regulated the right given by discovery amongst the European discoverers, but did not affect the rights of those already in possession, either as aboriginal occupants, or as occupants by virtue of a discovery before the memory of man; and in giving an exclusive right to purchase, it did not found that right on a denial of the right of the possessor to sell. 614. The relation between the Europeans and the Natives, was determined, in every case, by the particular Government which asserted and could maintain this pre-emptive privilege, in the particular place; and the United States succeeded to all the claims of the antecedent Governments, both territorial and political; but no attempt has been made to enlarge them. 615. So far as those claims existed merely in theory, or were in their nature exclusive only of the claims of other Nations, they still retain their original character, and continue dormant; but so far as they have been practically exerted, they exist in fact, are understood by both parties, and have frequently been asserted by the one, and admitted by the other. 616. The general Law of European Sovereigns respecting their claims in America, limited the intercourse of the Indians, in a great degree, to the particular potentate whose ultimate right of domain was acknowledged by the others; and the consequence was, that their supplies were chiefly derived from that Nation, and their trade confined to it. 617. Goods indispensable to their comfort, were received from the same source, in the shape of presents; and the strong arm of Government was interposed to restrain the disorderly and licentious from intrusions into their country, from encroachments on their lands, and from those acts of violence which were often attended with reciprocal murder. 618. In this protection the Indians perceived only what was beneficial to themselves; as it involved practically no claim on their lands, and no dominion over their persons; but merely bound them to the European Nation before the Revolution, as it has since, to the Federal Government, as dependent allies, claiming the protection of a powerful friend and neighbour, and receiving the advantages of that protection, without its involving a surrender of their National character. 619. Congress has from time to time passed Laws to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians, which treat them as Nations, respect their rights, and manifest a purpose to afford that protection to them for which Treaties stipulate; which Laws, and especially the Acts now in force, consider the several Indian Nations as distinct political communities, having territorial boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive. 620. The Treaties and Laws of the United States contemplate the Indian territory as completely sepa |