panded, as it would be by the import claimed for the phraseology in question. The difference is equivalent to two constitutions, of characters essentially contrasted with each other; the one possessing powers confined to certain specified cases; the other extended to all cases whatsoever. For what is the case, that would not be embraced by a general power to raise money; a power to provide for the general welfare; and a power to pass all laws necessary and proper to carry these powers into execution; all such provisions and laws superseding at the same time, all local laws and constitutions at variance with them? Can less be said, with the evidence before us, furnished by the Journal of the Convention itself, than that it is impossible, that such a constitution, as the latter, would have been recommended to the states by all the members of that body, whose names were subscribed to the instrument?
"Passing from this view of the sense, in which the terms, 'common defence and general welfare,' were used by the framers of the constitution, let us look for that, in which they must have been understood by the conventions, or rather by the people, who, through their conventions, accepted and ratified it. And here the evidence is, if possible, still more irresistible, that the terms could have been regarded, as giving a scope to federal legislation, infinitely more objectionable, than any of the specified powers, which produced such strenuous opposition, and calls for amendments, which might be safeguards against the dangers apprehended from them.
"Without recurring to the published debates of those conventions, which, as far as they can be relied on for accuracy, would, it is believed, not impair the evidence furnished by their recorded proceedings, it will suffice to consult the lists of amendments proposed by such of the conventions, as considered the powers granted to the government, too extensive, or not safely defined.
"Besides the restrictive and explanatory amendments to the text of the constitution, it may be observed, that a long list was premised under the name, and in the nature of 'Declaration of Rights;' all of them indicating a jealousy of the federal powers, and an anxiety to multiply securities against a constructive enlargement of them. But the appeal is more particularly made to the number and nature of the amendments, proposed to be made specific and integral parts of the constitutional text.
"No less than seven states, it appears, concurred in adding to their ratifications a series of amendments, which they deemed requisite. Of these amendments, nine were proposed by the convention of Massachusetts; five by that of South-Carolina; twelve by that of New-Hamp-
Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/407
CH. XIV.]
POWERS OF CONGRESS—TAXES.
399
