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Constitutional and Government Basics

Lesson Seven

The Purpose Of Government Part 4

By:A.K. Pritchard 1995, 1999, and 2001

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

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

To what extent do the powers of our Federal 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 defense, 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 Federal 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 reference 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 federal government, and go to the trouble of limiting it to those specific powers if the 'general welfare' clause was intended to grantpowers to government beyond those enumerated? Because the 'general welfare' clause DOES NOT extend any special powers to our federal 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 federal 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 misconstructionof 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 thisenumeration 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.

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