Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 11:01:52 -0500
From: republic@ll.net (Republic)
Subject: Lesson Seven - Resend
To: republic@ll.net



[Note:  Due to problems with my email server most did not receive this
lesson, hence the resend. - Tony]



Lesson Seven, July 11, 2001

The Purpose Of Government
Part 4
Provide For The General Welfare

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people.
Amendment Ten, United States Constitution


by A.K.  Pritchard
2001

 Copyright 2001
Anthony K.  Pritchard
All Rights Reserved

Suggested Reading - Federalist #41:
http://members.ll.net/chiliast/pdocs/fed41.htm



To what extent do the powers of our National Government extend?  Does
Congress have the Constitutional authority to pass any law that they wish?
To exert control over any issue?  Are there limitations upon the powers of
our National Government?  Is it the purpose of government to provide for
every need of the citizens it serves?  A good question to ask your
Congressmen and Senators is just what exactly is meant by the Tenth
Amendment to our Constitution, and if it has any application at all today.
In a later lesson we will examine some of the limited powers that are
delegated to our National Government.

In the Preamble of our Constitution it states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America.

And here we first find mention of the general Welfare.  Article One,
Section Eight of our Constitution also makes mention of general welfare:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and
Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general
Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be
uniform throughout the United States;

Almost immediately after our present Constitution was ratified, there were
those who claimed that the general welfare clause of the Constitution
gave our National Government the authority to tax and spend for any and
every cause.  But what did the founders say regarding the general welfare.

James Madison, who became known as the The father of the Constitution"
wrote in Federalist #41, under the pseudonym of Publius, in eference to
Article I, Section 8, (which lists specific powers of Congress):

For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted,
if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general
power? Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general
phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. But
the idea of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor qualify
the general meaning, and can have no other effect than to confound and
mislead, is an absurdity, which, as we are reduced to the dilemma of
charging either on the authors of the objection or on the authors of the
Constitution, we must take the liberty of supposing, had not its origin
with the latter.

Simply put, in the paragraph above, Madison asks why enumerate particular
powers, and limit the federal government to those enumerated powers, if the
general welfare clause extends to government all powers?  Good question!
Why indeed would the authors of our Constitution enumerate certain powers
to the government, and go to the trouble of limiting it to those specific
powers if the general welfare clause was intended to grant  powers to
government beyond those enumerated?  Because  the general welfare clause
DOES NOT extend any special powers to our government beyond those
particular powers enumerated by the Constitution!

Why then even mention general welfare one might ask.  Madison explains
Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and
then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars.   The phrase
general welfare was just that, a general phrase, and the Constitution
went on to enumerate the particular powers of the National Government, to
be used to effect the general welfare!  The phrase general welfare lumped
together all the powers, in general, that the Constitution then went on to
fully explain in particular.  James Madison went on to say:

It has been urged and echoed, that the power ``to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common
defense and general welfare of the United States,'' amounts to an unlimited
commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for
the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of
the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their
stooping to such a misconstruction.

Here Madison puts to rest the notion that providing for the general welfare
of the United States amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every
power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or
general welfare.  He went on to say that those who advocated that, by the
general welfare phrase, the government has an unlimited commission to
exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common
defense or general welfare   were laboring in distress to validate that
claim, and that by making the claim for unlimited government power they
were stooping to misconstruction.

MISCONSTRUCTION:  Wrong interpretation of words or things;  a mistaking of
the true meaning; as a misconstruction  of words or actions.  [Websters
1828]

Alexander Hamilton agreed with James Madison on this issue, and wrote in
Federalist #83:

"The plan of the convention declares that the power of Congress, or in
other words of the NATIONAL LEGISLATURE [emphasis in original], shall
extend to certain enumerated cases. This specification of particulars
evidently excludes all pretensions to a general legislative authority,
because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as
useless, if a general authority was intended."

Hamilton explains that the powers of Congress was limited to certain
enumerated cases, and this enumeration of powers excludes any other
powers.

It is clear, from the witness of the founders themselves, that the phrase
[provide] for the general welfare was NOT intended to extend to Congress
any powers not enumerated in the Constitution.

These arguments against the supposed special powers granted to Congress by
the phrase general welfare are valid against any other attempt by our
government to gain powers not granted by the Constitution.



Self Study Questions For Review

* These study guide suggestions are included especially for the benefit of
homeschooling students who may be using this course as a part of their
Civics study for high school credit.


1- Define Misconstruction



2.  What does the phrase general welfare mean?




3-  Who wrote under the pseudonym Publius?




4- Which Federalist writing deals with the General View of the Powers
Conferred by the Constitution


5- Does the phrase general welfare grant to Congress powers beyond those
enumerated in the Constitution?



[Please do not return the answers to these questions, they are for
self-review only]


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