phraseology. The known opinions of some of the states, which voted in the negative (Connecticut alone voted in the affirmative) shows, that it could not have been rejected on this account. It is most probable, that it was rejected, because it contained a restriction upon the power to tax; for this power appears at first to have passed without opposition in its general form.[a 1] It may be acceptable to the general reader to have the remarks of this venerable statesman in his own words, and therefore they are here inserted. After giving an historical review of the origin and progress of the whole clause, he says,
"A special provision in this mode could not have been necessary for the debts of the new congress; for a power to provide money, and a power to perform certain acts, of which money is the ordinary and appropriate means, must, of course, carry with them, a power to pay the expense of performing the acts. Nor was any special provision for debts proposed, till the case of the revolutionary debts was brought into view; and it is a fair presumption, from the course of the varied propositions, which have been noticed, that but for the old debts, and their association with the terms, 'common defence and general welfare,' the clause would have remained, as reported in the first draft of a constitution, expressing generally 'a power in congress to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises;' without any addition of the phrase 'to provide for the common defence and general welfare.' With this addition, indeed, the language of the clause being in conformity with that of the clause in the articles of confederation, it would be qualified, as in those articles, by the specification of powers subjoined to it. But there is sufficient reason to suppose, that the terms in question would not have been introduced, but for the introduction of the old debts, with which they happened to stand in a familiar, though inoperative, relation. Thus introduced, however, they pass undisturbed through the subsequent stages of the constitution.
"If it be asked, why the terms 'common defence and general welfare,' if not meant to convey the comprehensive power, which, taken literally, they express, were not qualified and explained by some reference to the particular power subjoined, the answer is at hand, that although it might easily have been done, and experience shows it might be well, if it had been done, yet the omission is accounted for by an inattention to the phraseology, occasioned, doubtless, by identity with the harmless character attached to it in the instrument, from which it was borrowed.
"But may it not be asked with infinitely more propriety, and without the possibility of a satisfactory answer, why, if the terms were meant to
- ↑ Journal of Convention, p. 220, 257, 284, 291.
