Mr. MORRILL. I think the answer to that is quite obvious, that the Government of the U.S. did not claim the right to exercise the power concurrently. It might offer to do an act which might prove to be accept able to the State. That would not be offensive, and that was precisely the character of the act of 1799, us [understand it. Now, what I am undertakingto demonstrate is that the quarantine power which the States exercise is a police power, belongs exclusively to the States, has been so regarded from the earliest period. What is a quarantine? What is the right of quarantine or the power of quarantine? It is simply to say that a vessel on its way to a particular ort, destined to a particular port, must not and, must tarry at a given point for a certain period of time, until an opportunity has been given to the local authorities to inspect the condition of the vessel, to see whether it is dangerous to the public health for it to land. That is the power. That power is internal; that power is police; that power is entirely independent of the commercial power and has so been settled in repeated instances. In the license cases that question was elaborated at very great length and it was settled distinctly that the police power existed independent of the power to reg ulate commerce, and was exclusively in the States. Now let me call the attention of the honor able Senfrom Massachusetts as to the condition of affairs in his own harbor. Quarantine regulations exist in the harbor of Boston by the power of the city. Did anybody ever question it? The SCOTUS have said they properly exist and that they are exclusively Wllhln the power of the State government, and the General government, under its power of commercial regulatiiiii, has no right to interfere with them. Here is a circular in which the surgeon general of that State says: " By the general statutes of this Commonwealth. unriintine regulations and other mattersrclstingto the public health are solely under the direction and control of the various municipalities of the State." That is true of Boston, and true of every other city in the country where these regulations have been made. Now, here is a more elaborate statement of the same principle in the regulations of the Board of Health of the city of NewYork, where they say:. “ It shall be the duty of the said board to give all information that may be reasonably renested respectingan threateneddangerto the public health to the healt officer of the port of NewYork and to the coiumissionersof quarantine of said port, who shall give like information, " kc. Showing that under the regulation of the States the verypowers which are claimed to be exercisedrhy this measure and to be conferred upon the Secretaries of War, Navy, and the Treasury, are exercised and have been exercised from the earliest period by the authorities of the States, and are said to have been properly exercised by the decisions to which I have referred. If anything could make this more plain, and show, I will not say the absurdity, but the questionable proriety of this power, it is the 2nd clause of the 1st section: 2 That he shall also enforce the establishment of sanitary cordons. I ask my honorable friendfrom Massachusetts if he will undertake to say that the establishment of sanitary cordous is the exercise of a commercial power.