3393. GENERAL WELFARE CLAUSE, Interpretation.—[further continued].
The construction applied
by the General Government (as is evidenced
by sundry of their proceedings) to those
parts of the Constitution of the United States
which delegate to Congress a 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”, and “to make all laws which shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into
execution the powers vested by the Constitution
in the government of the United States,
or in any department or officer thereof”,
goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed
to their power by the Constitution. * * *
Words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary
only to the execution of limited
powers, ought not to be so construed as
themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a
part to be so taken as to destroy the whole
residue of that instrument.—
Kentucky Resolutions. Washington ed. ix, 468.
Ford ed., vii, 299.
(1798)
