Implied Powers Quotes
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.
Most people agree as to what the powers are that are “enumerated” in the Constitution. But there is endless difference of opinion as to what the “implied necessary and proper” powers are. However, this quotation establishes the greater powers of the Government to act in foreign affairs.
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.
The major issue was whether Congress and the Federal Government could make laws and regulate the communities of people who had settled in the new territories. The argument that Young made was that unless a power was specifically enumerated in the Constitution as being granted to the Federal Government it was not. Most Constitutional scholars believe that there were powers implied by the enumerated powers such as the right for the Federal Government to regulate child labor or the safety of nuclear power plants which of course were never mentioned in the Constitution. At the same time anti Mormon sentiment led many to extend Federal Regulation to Mormons that had not been extended to other people. Plural marriage was one of those major value issues. The Mormons were very innovative in setting up institutions like buying cooperatives and systems for medical care and welfare, and many of these threatened the then established economic principles of many men of power and wealth. See {614881} for Brigham Young’s similar view.
