POWERS OF CONGRESS.—­Congress has power: 

(1) To levy and collect taxes, duties on imported goods, and revenues from articles of manufacture, “to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”

(2) “To borrow money on the credit of the United States.”

The usual method of borrowing money is to issue government bonds, which are promises to pay the sums specified in them at a given time, with interest at a given rate.  The bonds are sold, usually at their face value, and the proceeds applied to public purposes.  United States bonds can not be taxed by a State.

(3) “To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.”

(4) “To establish a uniform rule of naturalisation, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States.”

(5) “To coin money; regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin; and fix the standard of weights and measures.”

(6) “To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.”

(7) “To establish post-offices and post-roads.”

(8) “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”

That is, to grant copyrights to authors, and to issue patents to inventors.

(9) “To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court.”

(10) “To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.”

Piracy is robbery committed at sea.

(11) “To declare war; grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.”

Letters of marque are commissions issued to private parties, authorizing them to cross the frontiers of another nation, and to seize the persons and property of its subjects.

Reprisal is the forcible taking of the property or persons of the subjects of another nation, in return for injuries done to the government granting the letters.  Vessels carrying letters of marque and reprisal are called privateers.

(12) “To raise and support armies.”

(13) “To provide and maintain a navy.”

(14) “To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.”

(15) “To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection and repel invasions.”

(16) “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States.”

(17) “To exercise exclusive legislation” over the District of Columbia, “and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.”