Discussion Topics
* Throughout, Madison speaks against paper money, preferring gold and silver. Would a return to a gold standard be a desirable development? Why, or why not? How could it be done?
* At 25, Madison points out the Law of Unintended Consequences and how one mistake can lead to a structure of mistakes. Find some examples in current events.
* Madison lays the case for implied powers, in addition to enumerated powers, as a legitimate part of the government’s tool kit, thus laying groundwork for the concept of loose construction. Was he right, and why or why not?
*17 No one of these mischiefs is less incident to a power in the states to emit paper money, than to coin gold or silver.
*18 The power to make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts is withdrawn from the states on the same principle with that of issuing a paper currency.
+ Holy cow! The states can coin money! I never realized that. What would it be like if we (you could get it too) were paid in South Carolina coin? Hmmm.
*24 They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences in cases affecting personal rights become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more industrious and less informed part of the community.
*25 They have seen, too, that one legislative interference is but the first link of a long chain of repetitions, every subsequent interference being naturally produced by the effects of the preceding.
+ Well the founder’s remedy to “every subsequent interference” seems not to have worked, huh? One interfering law leads to another. Congress is always running to “stop the president” and the president is always running to fix the mistakes of the last president. Nothing is considered natural anymore. Nothing “simply happened” or is the result of bad luck. Each congress is able to blame the last president and vice versa. Checks and balances has led to a lack of culpability.
*33 Of these the first is, the “power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.”
+ Aaah the elastic clause. The bane of all Originalists and Strict Constructionists.
*35 Without the substance of this power, the whole Constitution would be a dead letter.
+ Well if the constitution is a dead letter without it, it can simply be assumed. The fact that it was written into the constitution has allowed the “living constitution” crowd to take it one step further. See McCulloch v. Maryland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessary_and_Proper_Clause#National_bank
*43 Had the Convention attempted a positive enumeration of the powers necessary and proper for carrying their other powers into effect, the attempt would have involved a complete digest of laws on every subject to which the Constitution relates;
+ Okay so it was intentional. The writers DID intend the Elastic Clause to give the congress leeway to do almost as it pleased. I kind of knew that already but it’s good to see it in print. The Federal Government is superior to the individuals and the states and unless the constitution enumerates an individual right, it is almost impossible for the ninth amendment to protect it.
+ It is up to us to elect a congress that protects our rights.
*46 Had the Constitution been silent on this head . . .
*48 Had this last method, therefore, been pursued by the Convention, every objection now urged against their plan would remain in all its plausibility
Gasp! Then we would have had debate.... Well the necessary debate has been short circuited by the Elastic Clause. Instead, our congress is overly free to do what it wants.
The states may not make anything but gold and silver a payment for debt. That is a little different. The Georgia Legislature is considering a bill that would make gold and silver preferred means of payment of state taxes. I don't know how that bill will fare until we have the final collapse of the dollar.
Nothing is considered natural anymore.
Sometimes "doo-doo" just happens. But there is a tendency for the poliical class to try to do anything, just to be seen as doing something. I remember people sending alarming letters to state legislators about the dangerous substance "dihydrogen monoxide", just to see legislators jump like a horse at the starting bell in an effort to ban water.