444
CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
fare; and because this necessarily embraces a vast variety of particulars, which are susceptible neither of specification, nor of definition. It is, therefore, of necessity left to the discretion of the national legislature to pronounce upon the objects, which concern the general welfare, and for which, under that description, an appropriation of money is requisite and proper. And there seems no room for a doubt, that whatever concerns the general interests of learning, of agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce, are within the sphere of the national councils, so far as regards an application of money. The only qualification of the generality of the phrase in question, which seems to be admissible, is this; that the object, to which an appropriation of money is to be made, must be general, and not local; its operation extending in fact, or by possibility, throughout the Union, and not being confined to a particular spot. No objection ought to arise to this construction from a supposition, that it would imply a power to do, whatever else should appear to congress conducive to the general welfare. A power to appropriate money with this latitude, which is granted in express terms, would not carry a power to do any other thing, not authorized in the constitution either expressly, or by fair implication.[1]
- ↑ There is no doubt, that President Washington fully concurred in this opinion, as his repeated recommendations to congress of objects of this sort, especially of the encouragement of manufactures, of learning, of a university, of new inventions, of agriculture, of commerce and navigation, of a military academy, abundantly prove. See 5 Marshall's Life of Washington, ch. 4, p. 231, 232; 1 Wait's State Papers, 15; 2 Wait's State Papers, 109, 110, 111.
