3392. GENERAL WELFARE CLAUSE, Interpretation.—[continued].
The Constitution says,
“Congress shall have power to lay and collect
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay
the debts, &c., provide for the common defence
and general welfare of the United
States”. I suppose the meaning of this
clause to be, that Congress may collect taxes
for the purpose of providing for the general
welfare, in those cases wherein the Constitution
empowers them to act for the general
welfare. To suppose that it was meant
to give them a distinct substantive power, to
do any act which might tend to the general
welfare, is to render all the enumerations
useless, and to make their powers unlimited.—
Opinion on Fugitive Slaves. Washington ed. vii, 602.
Ford ed., vi, 141.
(Dec. 1792)
