Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Welfare

• Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Purpose, Action

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.72, Cosimo, Inc.

• Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Presidential, Liberty, Libertarian

• To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.

  Thomas Jefferson

  United States, Purpose, Taxation

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.216, Penguin

• To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical...A wise and frugal government...shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned...Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated...Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Men, Hands

  A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, Chapter 82, 1779.

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