James Madison, a former Delegate to the Constitutional Convention from the Commonwealth of Viginia, using the pseudonym “Publius,” publishes “Federalist #44.” In paragraph nine he seeks to lend assurances that the Necessary and Proper Clause will not be perverted into a federal grant of unlimited federal powers:
There are four other possible methods which the convention might have taken on this subject. They might have copied the second article of the existing confederation which would have prohibited the exercise of any power not expressly delegated; they might have attempted a positive enumeration of the powers comprehended under the general terms “necessary and proper”; they might have attempted a negative enumeration of them, by specifying the powers excepted from the general definition: They might have been altogether silent on the subject; leaving these necessary and proper powers, to construction and inference.
[added 7/24/2026]
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
Articles of Confederation, Article XIII
ccc-2point0.com/Articles-of-Confederation
References:
Irwin A. Schiff, The Great Income Tax Hoax: Why You Can Immediately Stop Paying This Illegally Enforced Tax, (Hamden, Connecticut: Freedom Books, 1985), 49.
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