Accordingly, the bill does not
propose the measure as a 'regulation of trade,' but as 'productive of
considerable advantage to trade.'
Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
enumerations.
II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
following.
1. 'To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United
States'; that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing
for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and
the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised.
Congress are not to lay taxes, _ad libitum_, for any purpose they
please: but only to pay the debts, or provide for the welfare of the
Union. In like manner, they are not to do any thing they please, to
provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.
To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the
first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they
please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the
preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of
instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good
of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good
or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased.
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