Commerce Clause Quotes
The 10th Amendment reserves powers to the states and limits the Federal Government’s powers. However, there are other clauses in the Constitution, like the Commerce Clause (Article I Section 8), which gives the Federal Government authority and control over Interstate Commerce, which in modern society permeates almost all activities of State government, The result is that the federal government / state government power division has been a political issue and not really a constitutional one. At the time Republicans advocated a literal 10th Amendment interpretation and the Democrats favored a stronger Federal Government with more authority and power as stated by the Commerce Clause. Roy had been trying to explain to his fellow Republican strategists that it is hard to attract Blacks to the remainder to the Republican Platform as long as they were insensitive to what the 10th Amendment meant to Blacks historically. The Southern states cited the 10th Amendment more than any other part of the constitution to justify their right to maintain slavery. It was the Federal Government that ended slavery. Under the rubric of the 10th Amendment the South managed to get rid of most of the racial civil rights Reconstruction reforms that were imposed by the Federal Government on the Southern States. And it was the 19th Amendment that was the authority for Segregation for 100 years. And the terrorism of the Klu Klux Klan and the lynching and terror imposed on Blacks by Southern states claiming the 10th Amendment right to do so. Finally, it was the Federal Government, overriding the 10th Amendment with the Commerce Clause and other parts of the Constitution that passed and enforced the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Desegregation and the end to Lynching and other Southern State-Sponsored terrorism. Blacks will not any time soon accede to having the 10th Amendment literal view of the role of government and if Republicans insist on that there would continue to be very few Black Republicans,
This quotation illustrates two important points. First, that foreign and domestic trade and merchants were very much appreciated at the time and an important component of society that there were special protections for traders and merchants. Second, was the national preemption of jurisdiction and control over business and commerce that would enter and leave the city. On most matters the local authorities would handle things, but intercity and international commerce was historically continuously impaired by individual nobles and other authorities making rules affecting merchants who might come to their town or city. The Crown preempted this authority in the 13th century and the “Commerce Clause” of our Constitution was not an unusual concept and had an extensive legal and economic history.
Jefferson was worried that the Federal Government would get too expansive and justify almost any activity using the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. In this example, he goes from the responsibility for National Defense which is clearly Federal down to the hiring of the miners to produce the copper to arm the ships and shipbuilding which he thought were NOT legitimate Federal activities. He was right in the sense that the Commerce Clause did justify major Federal expansion, but at the times of the expansions and now most Americans thought that the expansions were useful and necessary. Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were on opposite sides of the degree of expansion that was desirable.
This quote is interesting because it itemizes some of the things that Jefferson clearly felt was beyond the constitutional powers of the Federal government. Yet all of these things were done by the Federal government after Jefferson passed away. The Corps of Engineers commonly builds and /or maintain rivers and canals, the military does some of its own manufacturing even today but far less than in the first half of the 20th century when much of the munitions were made in government factories. The federal government has and does maintain special farms. Some opponents of big government point to this quotation to illustrate how we have deviated from the concepts of the Founding Fathers.
Most of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were aristocrats, and all were elites of different types. However, they wanted and knew that they would have to submit their work product to the people for ratification. So while each had their own views, most were heavily influenced by their perception of public opinion reaction to their draft. Even with that, in order to get the ratification votes, they had to add the first 10 amendments—the Bill of Rights in order to get the votes of the men who were NOT at the convention.
This is a classic type of fallacious political logic. The author claims that there are no powers in the constitution to make laws in a number of important areas of our society. What is true, is that there is no explicitly and uniquely specified statements in the Constitution regarding the areas he specified (and some he didn’t like education). However the power to make laws in these areas comes from the “Commerce Clause” where the Federal Government was given the power to regulate Interstate Commerce. And that is what the Federal Government does make laws about. Food that is sold in the state where it is grown is regulated by the states. But interstate agriculture is. Medicines and weapons are also sold and transported in interstate commerce. Even housing is in part covered as financing and mortgages, building materials, working conditions of the building companies are part of Interstate Commerce. A succession of Congresses have recognized this and so has every Supreme Court in our history. McManus however believes that all these legislators and judges have been wrong and worse, part of a conspiracy to subvert the Constitution. See {630683} for his tendency to see conspiracies in politics.
