General Welfare Clause: Did Alexander Hamilton Waffle?

[Galileo Galilei]

General Welfare Clause: Did Alexander Hamilton Waffle?

Alexander Hamilton at one point in his political career seemed to have held a very limited view of the federal government’s powers, believing that such things as "agriculture and manufacture" were under the purview of state governments. Not long after taking such a stand, he advocated the federal government’s role in funding such pursuits. Did Hamilton change his tune? It does not appear so. On the one hand, Hamilton seemed to be advocating that the federal government should have no legislative control over things for which no power had been granted to it, while on the other he seemed to believe that it was okay for congress to appropriate moneys to all of the states generally to fund such pursuits, because funding of such endeavors was within the parameters of the Constitution’s General Welfare Clause.

http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=10916

[1836er]

I can't provide you precise quotes right now because my books are at work... but if you compare Hamilton's thoughts on the meaning of "general welfare" from the Federalist Papers when he was trying to convince people not to be afraid of the proposed constitution.. to what he wrote just a year or two later when trying to justify his big government agenda (look up his arguments in favor of a national bank)... it's like two different authors.

[Galileo Galilei]

I can't provide you precise quotes right now because my books are at work... but if you compare Hamilton's thoughts on the meaning of "general welfare" from the Federalist Papers when he was trying to convince people not to be afraid of the proposed constitution.. to what he wrote just a year or two later when trying to justify his big government agenda (look up his arguments in favor of a national bank)... it's like two different authors.

That's what this article is about. It has many quotations.