If the end be clearly comprehended within any of the specified powers, and if the measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not forbidden by any particular provision of the Constitution, it may safely be deemed to come within the compass of the national authority.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Government actions are valid if they relate to specified powers and aren't forbidden.
- In plain terms
- The government can act if it helps its goals and isn't stopped by the Constitution.
- What can you take from it?
- Implied powers allow government action within constitutional bounds.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where should limits on power be drawn?
- How do we interpret the Constitution?
Another view
This can lead to expanded government power beyond original intent.
More from Alexander Hamilton
Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite...to the attainment …
Permalink to quote #5 If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitu…
Permalink to quote #7 Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United…
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson quote #10 Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad p…
Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson quote #24 As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant…
Byron WhiteByron White quote #1