Welcome
Chapter 2-General WelfareThe term “General Welfare” has probably been used more to enslave man than any other term. This is akin to your father telling you “It’s for you own good.” Other terms used, synonymous with General Welfare, are “what is best for all,” “for their best interest,” “for the public good,” etc., etc. That is not what the founders meant by General Welfare. There have been many articles written on this term - some in favor of expanding governmental power, others on limiting governmental power. It is my position that the latter is correct. If the founders wished congress to have such broad, sweeping power, they would not have gone through the trouble of enumerating what powers they did have.
... President Madison, throughout this admonition to the House, refers to specified and enumerated powers of Congress. He went on to state that this was the established and consistent rule of interpretation for the powers of congress, and to give a broad interpretation would give Congress a general power of legislation, which it did not have. Within the context of “general welfare” the congress must stay within the enumerated boundaries set by the Constitution. He concluded by stating that if the Congress did not have these defined and limited powers they would be able to legislate anything using the common defense and general welfare clauses, and this was wrong. If it was wrong then, then it is wrong now.
The meaning of words has a tendency to change, over time, so we must determine what the founders meant. In order to establish a proper context for this discussion I will refer to Webster’s Dictionary from 1828 which gives the definition of Welfare as:
1. “Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.”
2.
“Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the
enjoyment
of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil
government; applied to states.”
The term states means governments. The founders knew, very specifically, the meaning of general welfare when they wrote it into the Constitution. Notice the distinction between the definitions as applied to persons and to states. Clearly, when speaking of “general welfare”, they knew a government could not provide for the specific “welfare” of every citizen to include sickness, health, prosperity, and happiness. No government in the world could provide such a thing. The government could only provide general welfare, an opportunity to enjoy peace, prosperity, and the “ordinary blessing of society.”
