After some general remarks on the limitations of all political power, he took notice of the pe culiar manner in which the federal government is limited. It is not ageneral grant, out of which particular powers are excepted—it is a grant of particular powers only, leaving the general mass in other hands. So it had been understood by its friends and its foes, and so it was to be inter preted. As preliminaries to a right interpretation, he laid down the following rules : An interpretation that destroys the very cha ra<fteriftic of the government cannot be just. Where a meaning is clear, the conferences, whatever they may be, are to be admitted— where doubtful, it is fairly triable by its conse quences. In controverted cases, the meaning of the par ties to the inftrunient, if to be collected by rea sonable evidence, is a proper guide. Cotemporary and concurrent expositions are a reasonable evidence of the meaning of the par ties. In admitting or rejecting a conflrutflive au thority, not only the degree of its incidentality to an express authority, is to be regarded, but the degree of its importance also ; lince on this will depend the probability or improbability of its being left to conftru<stion. Reviewing the constitution with an eye to tliefe positions, it was not poflible to discover in it the power to incorporate a Bank. The only clauses under which such a power could be pre tended, are either— 1. The power to lay and colled; taxes to pay the debts, and provide for ihe common defence and general welfare : Or, - ✓ 2. The power to borrow money on the credit of the United States : Or, 3. The power to pass all laws neceflary and proper to carry into execution those powers. The bill did not come within the firft power. It laid no tax to pay the debts, or provide for the general welfare. It laid no tax whatever. It ■was altogether foreign to the fubje<ft. No argument could be drawn from the terms " common defence, and general welfare." The power as to these general purposes, was limited to acfts laying taxes for them ; and the general purposes themlelves weie limited and explained by the particular enumeration subjoined. To ■underltand these terms in any sense, that would juftify the power in question, would give to Con gress an unlimited power ; would render nuga tory the enumeration of particularpowers ; would fupercede all the powers refervedto the state go vernments. These terms are copied from the articles of confederation ; had it ever been pre tended, that they were to be understood other wise than as here explained ? It had been said that " general welfare" meant cases in which a general power might be exerci sed by Congress, without interfering with the powers of the States; and that the eftablifliment of a National Bank was of this fort There ■were, he said, several answers to this novel doc- trine x. The proposed Bank would interfere so as indirectly to defeat a State Bank at the fame ' place 2. It would directly interfere with the rights of the States, to prohibit as well as to eftab lifti Banks, and the circulation of Bank Notes. He mentioned a law of Virginia, actually prohi biting the circulation of notes payable to bearer. 3. Interference with the power of the States was 110 conftitutiotial criterion of the power of Con gress. If the power was not given, Congress could not exercise it ; if given, they might exer cise it, altho it should interfere with the laws, or even the constitution of the States.— 4. If Con gress could incorporate a Bank, merely because the act would leave the States free to establish Banks also ; any other incorporations might be xnade by Congress. They could incorporate com panies of manufacturers, or companies for cutting canals, or even religious societies, leaving simi lar incorporations by the States, like Stare Banks to themselves: Congress might even establish re ligious teachers in every parish, and p?y them oilt of the Treasury of the United States, leaving other teachers unmolelted in their functions. These inadmissible confeqiiences condemned the controverted principle. The cafe of the Bank established by the for mer Congress, had been cited as a precedent. This was known, he said, to have been the child of neceflity. It never could be juftified by the regular powers of the articles of confederation. Congress betrayed a consciousness of this in re commending to the States to incorporate the Bank also. They did not attempt to protect the Bank Notes by penalties against counterfeiters. These were reserved wholly to the authority of the States. The second clause to be examined is that, which empowers Congress to borrow money. Is this a bill to borrfl/w money ? It does not borrow a fliilling. Is there any fair conftru<slion l>y which the bill can be deemed an exercise of the power to borrowmoney ?—The obviousmean ing of the power to borrow money, is that of ac eepting it ftoni, and stipulating payment to tliofe who are able and "milling to lend. To fay that the power to borrow involves a power of creating the ability, where there inay be the will, to lend, is not only eftablifliinga dan- gerous principle, as will be immediately fliewn, but is as forced a construction, as to fay that it involves the power of compellingthe will, where there may be the ability, to lend. The third clause is that which gives the power to pass all laws necefl'ary and proper to execute the fpecified powers. Whatever meaning this claufemay have, none can be admitted, that would give an unlimited discretion to Congress. Its meaning mull, according to the natural and obvious force of the terms and the context, be limited to means necejfary to the end, and incident to the nature of the fpecified powers. The clause is in fa (ft merely declaratory of what would have resulted by unavoidable impli cation,as the appropriate,and as it were,technical means of executing those powers. In this (enfe it had been explained by the friends of the con stitution, and ratified by the Hate conventions. The elfential charatfteriftic of the government, as composed of limited and enumerated powers, would be destroyed : If inltead of direct and in cidental means, any means could be used, which in the language of the preamble to the bill, ' might be conceived to be conducive to the fuccefsful conducting of the finances ; or might be conceiv ed to tend to give facility to the obtaining of loans.' He urged an attention to the ditFufe and duiftile terms which had been found requisite to cover the stretch of power contained in the bill. He compared them with the terms nece[fary and proper, used in the Constitution, and alked whether it was possible to view the two defer Options as fyno ninious, or the one as a fair and fafe commentary on the other. If, proceeded he, Congress, by virtue of the power to borrow, can create the means of lend ing, and in purfiTance of'thefe means, can incor porate a Bank, they may do any thing whatever creative of like means. The Eaft-lndia company has been a lender to the Britifli government, as well as the Bank, and the South-Sea company is a greater creditor than either. Congress then may incorporate similar companies in the United States, and that too not under the idea of regulating trade, but under that of borrowing money. Private capitals are the chief resources for loans to the Britilh government. Whatever then may be conceived to favor the accumulation of capi- tals may be done by Congress. They may incor porate manufacturers. They may give tnonopo- ies in every branch of domeitic industry If, again, Congress by virtue of the power to borrow money, can create the ability to lend, they may by virtue of the power to levy money, create the ability to pay it. The ability to pay taxes depends on the general wealth of the so ciety, and this, on the general prosperity of agriculture, manufactures and commerce. Con gress then may give bounties and make regula tions on all of these objedls. \ The States have, it is allowed on all hands, a concurrent right to lay and collect taxes. This power is secured to them not by its being ex pressly reserved, but by its not being ceded by the constitution. The reai'ons for the bill can not be admitted, because they would invalidate that righc ; why may it not be conceived by Con gress, that an uniform and exglufive impohtion of taxes, would not less than the proposed Banks ' be conducive to the fuccefsful conducting of the national finances, and tend to give facility to the obtaining of revenue, for the use of the govern- ment ?' The doctrine of implication is always a tender one. The danger of it has been felt in other governments. The delicacy was felt in the adop tion of our own ; the danger may also be felt, if we do not keep close to our chartered author ities. Mark the reasoning on which the validity of the bill depends. To borrow money is made the end and the accumulation of capitals, implied as the meant. The accumulation of capitals is then the end, and a bank implied as the means. The bank is then theend, and a charter of incorpo ration, a monopoly, capital punishments, &c. implied as the i?ieans. If implications, thus remote and thus multi plied, can be linked together, a chain may be formed that will reach every object of legislation, every object within the whole compass of politi cal economy. The latitude of interpretation required by the bill is condemned by the rule furniflied by the constitution itfelf. Congress have power " to regulate the value of money yet it is expressly added not left to be implied, that counterfeitors may be puuiflied. They have the power " to declare war," to which armies are more incident, than incorpo rated Banks, to borrowing ; yet is expressly ad ded, the power "to raise and support armies and to this again, the express power " to make 758 rules and regulations for the government of ar mies a like remark is applicable to the powers as to a navy, The regulation and calling out of the militia are more appurtenant to war, than the proposed bank, to borrowing ; yet the former is not left to conftrudlion. The very power to borrow money is a less re mote implication from the power of war, than an incorporated monopoly bank, from the pow er of borrowing—yet the power to borrow is i lo c left to implication. It is not pretended that every ii-ifertioi] oroinif fion in the constitution is the effed of fyltematic attention. This is not the character of any hu man work, particularly the work of a body of men. The examples cited, with others "that might be added, fufTiciently inculcate nevertheless a rule of interpretation, very different from that on which the bill relbs. They condemn the cx ereife of any power, particularly a great and im portant power, which is not evidently and jieccl farily involved in an exprefspower. It cannot be denied that I lie power proposed to be exercised is an important power. As a charter of incorporation the bill creates an artificial person previously not exiftingin law. It confers important civil rights and attributes which could not otherwise be claimed. It is, though not precisely similar, at least to the naturalization of an alien,by which certain new civil characters are acquired by him. Would Congress have had the power to naturalize, if it had not been expressly givea ? In the power to make bye laws, the bill dele gated a fort of legislative power, which is un questionably an adt of a high and important na ture. He took notice of the only restraint on the bye laws, that they were not to be contrary to the law and the conllicution of the bank ; and alked what law was intended ; if the law of the United States, the scantiness of their code would give a power, never before given to a corpora tion—and obnoxious to the States, whose laws would then be fuperceded not only by the laws of Congress, but by the bye laws of a corpora tion within their own juridiction. If the law intended, was the law of the State, then the State might make laws that would destroy an in stitution of the United States. The bill gives a power to purchase and ho'cl lands ; Congress themselves could not purchase lands within a State " without the consent of its legislature." Mow could they delegate a pow er to others which theydid not pollefs themselves It takes from our fucceilors, who have equal rights with ourselves, and wrh the aid of expe rience will be more capable of deciding on the fubjeCl, an opportunity of exercising that right, for an immoderate term. Ittakes from our constituents the opportunity of deliberatingon the untried mealure, although their hands are also to be tied by it for the fame erra It involves a monopoly, which afFedis the equal rights of every citizen. It leads to a penal regulation, perhaps capital punishments, one of the moll: foleinn aits of so vereign authority. From this view of the power of incorporation exercised in the bill, it could never be deemed an acceflary or subaltern power, to be deduced by implication, as a means of executing another power ; it was in its nature a diftintTt, an inde pendent and fubltantive prerogative, which not being enumerated in the constitution could never have been meant to be included in it, and not being included could never be rightfully exer cised. He here adverted to a diftincftion, which he said had not been fufficiently kept in view, be tween a power necefl'ary and proper for the go vernment or union, and a power neceifary and proper for executing the enumerated powers. In the latter cafe, the powers included in each of the enumerated powers were not exprefled, but to be drawn from the nature of each. In the former, the powers composing the government were expressly enumerated. This constituted the peculiar nature of the government, no power therefore not enumerated, could be inferred from the general nature of government. Had the power of making treaties, for example, been omitted, however neceflarj' it might have been, the defect could only have been lamented, orfup plied by an amendment of the constitution. But the proposed bank could not even be called necessary to the government; at molt it could be but convenient. Its uses to the government could be supplied by keeping the taxes a little in advance—by loans from indi vid uals—by the other banks, over which the government would have eqnal command ; nay greater, as it may grant or refufe to these the privilege, made a free and irrevocable gift to the proposed bank, of using their notes in the federal revenue. He proceeded next to the coteniporary exposi tions given to the constitution. The defence against the charge founded on the want of a bill of rights, presupposed, he said. that the powers not given were retained; ani
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