These
six enumerated powers and their distortions may be summed up: 1. To
establish post-roads; consequently to construct highways for commerce.
2. To declare war; consequently to provide means for moving troops and
supplies. 3. To regulate commerce; consequently to improve rivers and
build harbours for inland commerce. 4. To pay the debts and provide
for the common defence and general welfare; consequently, to make
appropriations for anything which would benefit the people and
contribute to their defence or welfare. 5. To make all laws necessary
and proper for carrying into effective execution the foregoing powers;
consequently to extend the expressed powers to an unlimited degree by
adding corollaries to them. 6. To dispose of and make all needful rules
and regulations concerning the territory of the United States;
consequently, to appropriate money for public improvements in them.
At the same time that he was attempting to prove that no general system
of improvements was justified by any of these expressed powers, Monroe
was demonstrating the absurdity of the policy of hesitation. The justice
of a toll system no one questioned.
Pages:
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533