“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
James Madison, in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell on October 30, 1828. A history of that clause, as traced in the printed journal of the Federal Convention, will throw light on the subject. It appears that the clause, as it originally stood, simply expressed “a...
NOTE: In this letter to Albert Gallatin dated June 16, 1817, Thomas Jefferson discussed the General Welfare Clause after President Monroe had vetoed a bill for the improvement of the Cumberland Road. Monroe did not believe the work fell within the scope of the...
