The Liberty Tree Lantern

The specified powers of the Constitution, in their own words –

I was reading through the Journal that was kept by James Madison as a record of the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787. This Journal is the most complete, and the most definitive record, of the proceedings, the debates, and the votes that were taken, while the delegates from the thirteen States were writng the US Constitution. (Note 1 below) The Journal was later ordered to be printed and published by an Act of Congress.

I’ve copied a page from Madison’s Journal below. On Sept.14,1787 they were proposing to add the power to “cut canals” to the specified powers that Congress has. They discussed their reasons for and against granting Congress the power to “cut canals”, but as you can see, in the end they voted to not extend that new power to Congress. (page 725 of the “Journal of the Federal Convention”)

They voted down this ‘new proposed power’ to cut canals – they did not allow it – they did not give that authority to the federal government. But, regardless of what this ‘particular proposed power’ was, the fact that they specified some powers and voted down other powers says it all. We undeniably have a Constitution expressly designed to limit the federal government to the specified enumerated powers listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. (Note 2 below)

Any person could read this one page of Madison’s Journal and not have to go any further to realize that there can be no debate — there is no argument that can be put forth that Congress has some sort of an ever elastic, ever expanding, ever more supreme authority to legislate on any subject that strikes their fancy.

They would not have debated about, voted for, and then specified only some powers, if they actually intended to grant unlimited powers. They would simply have said that Congress can pass any legislation that they wish in order to advance the “general welfare”. They did not, they merely granted Congress the power to “collect taxes” to advance the “general welfare”, with that “general welfare” being limited to the specified powers that followed. (Note 2 below)

There is line after line, page after page, statement after statement, from these representatives of their respective States as they wrote our Constitution. The entire purpose of the Constitution is to chain our public officials to a strict and clearly delineated set of rules and tasks within very narrow and specific boundaries. (Note 2 below)

The Constitution is a very explicit and easily understood document. It is not necessary to interpret the Constitution. The founders of this Country wrote down exactly what they meant when they composed it. If you ignore, reinterpret, or disregard any one part of it, then you ignore it in its entirety. You subvert the very reason for having a written Constitution. Anyone who oversteps these boundaries is not authorized to do so.

As Mr. Mason put it while discussing another power of Congress in Article 1, Section 8, “Congress would not have the power unless it were expressed” in the Constitution. (page 542 of the “Journal of the Federal Convention”)

Mr. Madison further stated on the U.S. House floor, February 7, 1792., “I, sir, have always conceived—I believe those who proposed the Constitution conceived—it is still more fully known, and more material to observe, that those who ratified the Constitution conceived—that this is not an indefinite government, deriving its powers from the general terms (to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare) prefixed to the specified powers—but a limited government, tied down to the specified powers, which explain and define the general terms. “

“The language held in various discussions of this house is a proof that the doctrine (of implied open ended general welfare powers) in question was never entertained by this body. Arguments, wherever the subject would permit, have constantly been drawn from the peculiar nature of this government, as limited to certain enumerated powers, instead of extending, like other governments, to all cases not particularly excepted.”

“In short, sir, without going farther into the subject, which I should not have here touched at all but for the reasons already mentioned, I venture to declare it as my opinion, that, were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America; and what inferences might be drawn, or what consequences ensue, from such a step, it is incumbent on us all to consider.” (James Madison, Speech on the U.S. House floor, 07 February 1792. Quote in: Jonathan Elliot, Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 4, p.428-429)

In his Farewell Address on September 17 of 1796, George Washington stated that “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all.”

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Records of the Federal Convention

Published Under Direction Of The United States Government

From The Original Manuscripts.

Reprinted 1895 Albert, Scott, Chicago, Page 725

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7

[2:615; Madison, 14 Sept. 1787]

Doctor Franklin moved to add after the words “post roads” Article I Sect. 8. “a power to provide for cutting canals where deemed necessary”.

Mr Wilson seconded the motion.

Mr Sherman objected. The expense in such cases will fall on the United States, and the benefit accrue to the places where the canals may be cut.

Mr Wilson. Instead of being an expense to the U. S. they may be made a source of revenue.

Mr. Madison suggested an enlargement of the motion, into a power “to grant charters of incorporation where the interest of the United States might require, and the legislative provisions of individual States may be incompetent”. His primary object was however to secure an easy communication between the States, which the free intercourse now to be opened seemed to call for. The political obstacles being removed, a removal of the natural ones as far as possible ought to follow.

Mr. Randolph seconded the proposition.

Mr King thought the power unneccessary.

Mr Wilson. It is necessary to prevent a State from obstructing the general welfare.

Mr King — The States will be prejudiced and divided into parties by it. In Philadelphia and New York, it will be referred to the establishment of a bank, which has been a subject of contention in those cities. In other places it will be referred to mercantile monopolies.

Mr. Wilson mentioned the importance of facilitating by canals the communication with the Western Settlements. As to Banks he did not think with Mr. King that the power in that point of view would excite the prejudices and parties apprehended. As to mercantile monopolies they are already included in the power to regulate trade.

Col: Mason was for limiting the power to the single case of Canals. He was afraid of monopolies of every sort, which he did not think were by any means already implied by the Constitution as supposed by Mr. Wilson.

The motion being so modified as to admit a distinct question specifying & limited to the case of canals.

New Hampshire — Massachusetts — Connecticut — New Jersey– Delaware –Maryland — North Carolina — South Carolina — no

Georgia — Pennsylvania — Virgina — aye [ Ayes--3; noes--8. ] The motion was not agreed to.

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Note 1 —– James Madison was dertermined to — “preserve as far as I could an exact account of what might pass in the Convention”. If the convention succeeded in drafting a new constitution and if that proposal were adopted by the American people, Madison felt that his record of what happened in the convention would allow future generations to understand “the objects, the opinions & the reasonings” that gave rise to the new Constitution. Madison, like many others of his generation, believed that Americans had the responsibility of constitution making not merely for themselves and their posterity but for all of mankind. His record of the Constitutional Convention would help future historians from all countries understand the philosophical and practical motivations of the delegates.

The Convention chose William Jackson as its secretary. Madison correctly sensed that Jackson would preserve only a skeletal record of the proceedings. Thus, with the tacit approval of the delegates, Madison separated himself from the Virginia delegation and sat instead in “a seat in front of the presiding member, with the other members on my right & left hands. In this favorable position for hearing all that passed, I noted . . . what was read from the Chair or spoken by the members”.

Madison was already an accomplished note taker of debates, having practiced and refined his skill in Congress. The scholarly Virginian had a knack for isolating the essentials of the argument while listing the supporting evidence given by each speaker. He explained that he “was not a little aided by practice & by a familiarity with the style and the train of observation & reasoning which characterized the principal speakers”. He never missed a day of the convention, nor at most “a cassual fraction of an hour in any day, so that I could not have lost a single speech, unless a very short one”. He wrote his notes in full words, symbols, and abbreviations. On occasion speakers also gave him written copies of their speeches and, naturally, he had whatever written text he prepared for the more than two hundred times he spoke in the convention. Each evening he expanded these rough notes. Later, after 1789, he copied William Jackson’s manuscript proceedings of the convention, which contained the exact wording of motions and resolutions as well as the votes on these measures and correlated those to his in order to have as complete a record of the proceedings as was possible. Given the importance of the Constitution in our lives today, Madison’s notes have become invaluable for an understanding of the original meaning of the Founders.

 

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Note 2 —– Below are listed the specifically enumerated POWERS of CONGRESS as mentioned by James Madison above, and as copied directly from Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution. The actual powers of Congress are in bold print. All other powers and rights, not expressly delegated to Congress by the Constitution, are reserved to THE STATES or to THE PEOPLE ( see the 9th and 10th Amendments to the US Constitution ).

Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution

The Congress shall have 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; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

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;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

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, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, 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;–And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

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Thomas Paine, the great revolutionary-era writer — the author of ‘Common Sense’ — wrote,

A constitution is the act of the people in their original character of sovereignty. A government is a creature of the constitution; it is produced and brought into existence by it. A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.