The Founder's View of the National Government

Thomas Jefferson – “The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the state governments with the civil right, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the state generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties; and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.”

James Madison – “ It is objected to this system, that under it there is no sovereignty left in the state governments…I should be very glad to know at what period the state governments become possessed of the supreme power. On the principle… of this Constitution…the supreme power resides in the people. If they choose to indulge a part of their sovereign power to be exercised by the state governments, they may. If they have done it, the states were right in exercising it; but if they (the people) think it no longer safe or convenient, they will resume it, or make a new distribution, more likely to be productive of that good which ought to be our constant aim. The powers both of the general government and the state governments, under this system, are acknowledged to be so many emanations of power from the people.”

Alexander Hamilton – “The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense. In these are comprehended the regulation of commerce, the support of armies and navies, and of the civil administration. This principle assented to, let us inquire what are the objects of the state governments. Have they to provide against foreign invasion? Have they to maintain fleets and armies? Have they any concern in the regulation of commerce, the procuring alliances, or forming treaties of peace? No. Their objects are merely civil and domestic – to support the legislative establishment, and to provide for the administration of the laws.”

James Madison – “The powers of the general (federal) government relate to external objects and are but few. But the powers in the states relate to those great objects which immediately concern the prosperity of the people.”

Alexander Hamilton – “The plan of the convention declares that the power of Congress, or, in other words, of the national legislature, shall extend to certain enumerated cases. This specification of particulars evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd as well as useless if a general authority was intended.”

In these quotes it is quite plain that our founders intended that the federal government be primarily concerned with entities and events beyond our national borders. It is also self evident that the powers delegated to the national authority were to be quite limited and strictly defined. The grossly engorged bureaucracy we currently have in Washington contrasts sharply with our forefather’s view of what the federal government should look like. I close with the words of Thomas Jefferson:

“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”