Alexander Hamilton in Annapolis: Although it is more commonly known as the precursor to the United States Constitutional Convention, The Annapolis Convention on Navigation should really be remembered for its legacy as the birthplace of interstate commerce and its well-worn (and oft hated) clause.
Here is a question for you. At what point does interstate commerce infringe upon a state's rights?
In the late summer of 1786, twelve delegates from five states-- New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia-- crammed into a small tavern in Annapolis, Maryland to discuss an urgent and difficult matter. Trade barriers.
At this time, the United States was a confederacy of thirteen independent nations united in a trade and mutual defense pact, somewhere between the United Nations and the European Union in nature, as they stand today.
The question at hand was urgent and difficult, because each of the states represented had navigation and tax issues that were encumbering their trade. New York was charging tariffs to New Jersey; Maryland was choking the flow of goods and shipping from Pennsylvania and Delaware via the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay; and not to be outdone-- Virginia was getting her pound of flesh from all three states as their goods made their way to the Atlantic at Cape Charles. Its no wonder that no less than George Washington himself urged a conference.
What resulted of course was the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia the following year, and the formation of the federal republic we now have with all its complex balances of powers and responsibilities.
As federal republics go, ours is pretty unique, in that each citizen is a citizen of both his or her state as well as the federal government. Both entities are granted (and restrained) by certain powers, rights, and responsibilities. The federal government, for example is given the power to levy and collect taxes, manage our currency and a foreign policy, wage war, and ensure the free passage of goods and citizens through the states. This is necessary because again, the citizens are citizens of both their state and the federal government.
It was Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Marshall (a strong Federalist) who soon saw the jawbone potential of interstate commerce as a way to exercise more power over the states. In a series of early decisions, the forceful Marshall used the concept of interstate commerce to pave the way to canals, turnpikes, railroads, telegraph lines, telephone lines, electric grids, airlines, interstate highways, cell phone towers, the internet, and WiFi; all these (thanks to interstate commerce) fall under the purview of the federal government.
Formidable powers indeed-- but not omnipotent. Because once something ceases to be "interstate" it becomes "inner-state" and at that point federal authority looses its grip. As an example, the federal government (through interstate commerce) may allow a freight train or an airplane to cross several states and terminate its travels-- but once that train stops or the airplane lands-- the fate of that freight or those passengers, is in the hands of that state.
A current example of this is in play here in Puerto Rico at this very moment. Our governor has repeatedly asked the FAA to exclude flights from New York and Florida due to health concerns-- requests that the federal government has declined to grant. So as a counterpoint to lack of federal action, the planes can land-- but any passengers on those planes will be confined to quarters exclusively for 14 days.
Needless to say, no one is booking these flights.
Our governors and state legislatures have every right to protect their citizens as they see fit. If the basic outline and limitations of interstate commerce are not sufficient to underscore this right-- certainly the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution make it abundantly clear. In those amendments, it is unequivocally stated, that any power not granted to the Federal Government is retained by the states and by the people respectively.
The wolf that is the federal government can huff and puff-- but that does not mean they can't blow the governor's mansion or the state house down. Citizens of this country live in a federal republic-- and it is up to them (and their governors) to maintain it. Otherwise we may very well see groups of them hanging out in a Maryland tavern one day soon planning their next trade agreement. Without Washington (retired general or capital city) I might add.
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