Joseph P. Bradley

“ It certainly could not have been intended as a tax on the corporate franchise, because, by the terms of the act, it was laid equally on the corporations of other states doing business in Pennsylvania. If intended as a tax on the franchise of doing business,-which in this case is the business of transportation in carrying on interstate and foreign commerce,-it would clearly be unconstitutional. ”

“ As a tax on transportation, we have already seen from the quotations from the State Freight Tax Case that it cannot be supported where that transportation is an ingredient of interstate or foreign commerce, even though the a w imposing the tax be expressed in such general terms as to include receipts from transportation which are properly taxable. ”

“ Justice STRONG delivered the opinion of the court. It was held that this was not a tax upon the franchises of the companies, or upon their property, or upon their business, measured by the number of tons of freight carried, but was a tax upon the freight carried, and because of its carriage; that transportation is a constituent of commerce; that the tax was therefore a regulation of commerce, and a regulation of commerce among the state ”

“ Justice FIELD, that the business of landing and receiving passengers and freight at the wharf in Philadelphia was a necessary incident to and a part of their transportation across the Delaware river from New Jersey; that without it that transportation woud be impossible; that a tax upon such receiving and landing of passengers and freight is a tax upon their transportation,-that is, upon the commerce between the two states involved in such transportation ”

“ Nevada, 6 Wall. 35, in which this court had decided that a state cannot tax persons for passing through or out of it, Justice STRONG said: 'If state taxation of persons passing from one state to another, or a state tax upon interstate transportation of passengers, is unconstitutional, a fortiori, if possible, is a state tax upon the carriage of merchandise from state to state in conflict with the federal constitution. Merchandise is the subject of commerce. Transportation is essential to commerce ”

“ This is a principle so often announced by the courts, and especially by this court, that it may be received as an axiom of our constitutional jurisprudence. It is unnecessary, therefore, to review the long list of cases in which the subject is discussed. ”

“ If congress has not made any express regulations with regard to interstate commerce, its inaction as we have often held, is equia lent to a declaration that it shall be free in all cases where its power is exclusive ”