3395. GENERAL WELFARE CLAUSE, Manufactures.—[continued].
In a Report on the subject
of manufactures, it was expressly assumed
that the General Government has a
right to exercise all powers which may be for
the general welfare, that is to say, all the
legitimate powers of government; since no
government has a legitimate right to do what
is not for the welfare of the governed. There
was, indeed, a sham limitation of the universality
of this power to cases where money
is to be employed. But about what is it that
money cannot be employed?—
To President Washington. Washington ed. iii, 461.
Ford ed., vi, 103.
(M.
1792)