The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United StatesMarshall, John
History
The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United States
Marshall, John
Generals -- United States -- Biography; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
To this reasoning respecting the inherent right of government to
employ all the means requisite to the execution of its specified
powers, it is objected, that none but _necessary_ and _proper_ means
can be employed; and none can be _necessary_, but those without which
the grant of the power would be nugatory. So far has this restrictive
interpretation been pressed as to make the case of _necessity_ which
shall warrant the constitutional exercise of a power, to depend on
casual and temporary circumstances; an idea, which alone confutes the
construction. The expedience of exercising a particular power, at a
particular time, must indeed depend on circumstances, but the
constitutional right of exercising it must be uniform and invariable.
All the arguments, therefore, drawn from the accidental existence of
certain state banks which happen to exist to-day, and for aught that
concerns the government of the United States may disappear to-morrow,
must not only be rejected as fallacious, but must be viewed as
demonstrative that there is a radical source of error in the
reasoning.
But it is essential to the being of the government that so erroneous a
conception of the meaning of the word _necessary_ should be exploded.
It is certain that neither the grammatical nor popular sense of the
term requires that construction. According to both, _necessary_ often
means no more than _needful, requisite, incidental, useful_, or
_conducive to_. It is a common mode of expression to say that it is
necessary for a government or a person to do this or that thing, where
nothing more is intended or understood than that the interests of the
government or person require, or will be promoted by doing this or
that thing.
This is the true sense in which the word is used in the constitution.
The whole turn of the clause containing it indicates an intent to give
by it a liberal latitude to the exercise of the specified powers. The
expressions have peculiar comprehensiveness. They are "to make _all
laws_ necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing
powers, and _all other_ powers vested by the constitution in the
government of the United States, or in any _department_ or _office_
thereof." To give the word "necessary" the restrictive operation
contended for, would not only depart from its obvious and popular
sense, but would give it the same force as if the word _absolutely_ or
_indispensably_ had been prefixed to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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